Women More Frequently Diagnosed with Anxiety, Depression

Gender is a significant deciding factor in mental health. There is a higher prevalence of poor mental health among women of all ages and across all social groups. There is also a multiplier effect due to the accumulation of inequality experiences. This reality also seems to be unequal in terms of the age and socioeconomic level of the patients. The findings of the study are published in the journal Gaceta Sanitaria. One of the authors of the study Amaia Bacigalupe, states that "women are more commonly diagnosed with anxiety and depression, and the taking of prescribed psychotropic medications is also significantly greater, even if there is no distinction with men with regard to mental health equality, diagnoses, and frequency of visits to healthcare centers."

"All this could lead to the existence of a medicalization process of mental health in women, but understanding its origin is difficult since the processes involving the high prevalence of diagnosis and overprescription surely play a role, but maybe also due to infra-diagnosis and lower drug prescription rates in men," adds Bacigalupe.

Hence, the research group highlights that decreasing gender inequalities in mental health will need to be the result of policy intervention on various levels.

"There is a clear link between the degree of gender inequality in society and gender inequalities in mental health," states Amaia Bacigalupe, "so all those policies designed to fight the discrimination endured by women on the labor market, in the responsibility for domestic and care work, in the use of time and, generally, relating to those that empower women based on their greater political representation and making them more socially visible, will exert a positive effect on the reduction in mental inequalities between men and women."

Source-Medindia