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Is Sex Necessarily a Risk Factor to Depression?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Tirril Harris ,
Paul Surtees  and
John Bancroft
Tirril Harris
Affiliation:
MRC Research Team, Department of Social Policy and Social Administration, Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, 11 Bedford Square, London WC1B 3RA
Paul Surtees
Affiliation:
MRC Biostatistics Unit, 5 Shaftesbury Road, Cambridge CB2 2BQ
John Bancroft
Affiliation:
MRC Reproductive Biology Unit, Royal Edinburgh Hospital, Edinburgh EH10 5HR
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Abstract

“To isolate and quantify possible determinants of any increased prevalence of depressive disorders in women we studied a select group of men and women, initially similar in terms of a number of putative social determinants of depression, and reviewed the sample five years later when social role diversity was anticipated. We used the Diagnostic Interview Schedule (DIS) to generate DSM–III and RDC diagnoses to estimate lifetime depressive disorders, and established (via corroborative reports) the likely accuracy of those data. Despite lifetime depression being a relatively common experience, no significant sex differences in depressive episodes were demonstrated, suggesting the possible irrelevance of biological factors in determining any sex difference. As there was not major social role divergence over the five year study, we interpret the lack of a sex difference as a consequence, and suggest that findings support the view that social factors are of key relevance in determining any female preponderance in depression described in general population studies.”

Type
The Current Literature
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 158 , Issue 5 , May 1991 , pp. 708 - 712
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1991 

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