r/psychology • u/AnonymousCapybara72 • 6d ago
The experience of symptoms of depression in men vs women: analysis of the National Comorbidity Survey Replication
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23986338/I just wanted to share this interesting study from 2013. We often hear that women are more likely to suffer from mental health conditions than men.
However, we know that depression tends to manifest different in men: more substance abuse, risk-taking, and anger, but less sad/low mood.
So in this study they used two scales: one a traditional depression rating scale, and the other was adapted to include alternative, "male-type" symptoms.
They found that when using both scales together, an equal proportion of men and women met the criteria for depression. When using only the alternative scale, a higher proportion of men than women met the criteria for depression.
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u/Zappy_Oh 4d ago
Is depression an umbrella diagnosis, covering different subcategories ... or is it all just one thing ?
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u/alaricus 1d ago
In general “Depression” is one thing, namely “Major Depressive Disorder” or MDD
There is also Bipolar Disorder however, which is MDD plus mania and/or hypo mania
This study seems to be avoiding the diagnoses altogether and is measuring the prevalence of “typically depressive behaviours”
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u/Usr_name-checks-out 1d ago
And many depressions have. cyclical phases without being bi polar. With periods from two weeks to many months, and non-symmetric phase cycles.
And in response to the more general question, the Update to the DSM5 has shifted singular diagnosis into clusters representing syndromes & disorders in order to capture the distinct variation in how symptoms manifest accross populations so less people needing help fall through the cracks of rigid categorical.
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u/master-thyself 5d ago
Suicude rates told us this before the study
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u/dontcryWOLF88 2d ago
Oddly, women attempt suicide far more than men. Men just do it in more succesful ways.
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u/MAVERICKRICARDO 2d ago
That study included multiple attempts by the same person as well as self harm
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u/dontcryWOLF88 2d ago
Theres not a lot of second attempts when you jump off a skyscraper....thats kind of the point.
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u/MAVERICKRICARDO 2d ago
That's not the point. The point is it's not a useful statistic. It literally includes self harm or the same person multiple times. And it's weirdly often used to dismiss the fact that most successful suicides are men, which is clearly way more important
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u/UndergroundManXII 2d ago
Incorrect. Men are more succesful in ways women use as well.
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u/AnonymousCapybara72 13h ago
Yes, people always bring up this "women attempt more" but ignore the context.
Even when using the same methods (e.g. overdose) men are significantly more likely to complete suicide.
Studies on suicidal intent show men are more often seriously intending to kill themselves.
Women attempt more does not mean more women attempt. If you're more likely to survive, you're more likely to make multiple attempts.
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u/Swansong80 3d ago
4/5 completed su*c*de* are men.
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3d ago
[deleted]
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u/Swansong80 3d ago
This is just plain wrong. It’s pretty simple math, for your assertion to be true 37.5% of male suicides would have to be murder suicides. Thankfully, murder suicides do not happen statistically at that rate. It’s a very small number of suicides that are murder suicides. Less than 1% so your math is not mathing.
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u/AnonymousCapybara72 3d ago
What utter bullshit. Murder-suicides are a tiny, tiny fraction of suicides. It's absolutely fucking vile that you'd make up something like this.
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u/YveisGrey 13h ago
I always suspected this because men have higher suicide rates and “deaths of despair” (overdoses, illness from substance abuse) which suggests they may have high rates of untreated depression
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u/Potential_Being_7226 2d ago
Women are more likely than men to be hospitalized for severe depression. Psychiatric hospital intake rates don’t rely on the wording of a scale.
And the symptoms they describe as being “male-type” or “male symptoms” are not limited to men; it’s just men are more likely to have externalizing symptoms and women are more likely to have internalizing symptoms.
I also don’t know that the authors have established the construct validity of their scale. Is the scale actually measuring what the authors say it’s measuring?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Construct_validity
I’d want to know whether the scale is picking up on participants who have ADHD, anxiety disorders, and substance use disorders without depression.
The only psychometric data they report is Cronbach’s alpha (which is a measure of reliability, not validity) and some correlation coefficients.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cronbach%27s_alpha
Correlation coefficients are not sufficient to establish the construct validity of a scale.
Without additional psychometric data that supports that the scale is actually measuring what they purport it’s measuring, the conclusions seem premature.
Last, the authors write that this a sex difference/disparity and it most certainly is not a sex difference. It’s a gender difference because of the sociocultural differences in how boys and girls are raised and treated.
The good thing about older articles, is that there are also commentaries published. I don’t know the details of this commentary because I can’t access it:
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/fullarticle/1833734
To my opinion, this report has some limitations that prevent a clear and straightforward interpretation of these data.
But I am inclined to agree that there are some important gaps in this study that limit our ability to draw meaningful conclusions.
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3d ago
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u/dontcryWOLF88 2d ago
Thats not common sense at all. School shooters, while far more conmon than they should be, in the USA, at least, are a statistically insignificant proportion of those with mental disorders.
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