Sex Differences and the Epidemiology of Depression

Weissman, Myrna M.; Klerman, Gerald L.

doi:10.1001/archpsyc.1977.01770130100011

Cited by 1,684 publications

(726 citation statements)

References 121 publications

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“…3 Following up on their previous study, the Cross-National Germany. This is a fairly replicated finding, as reviewed by Weissman and Klerman, 7 and reinforced Collaborative Group 4 extended previous findings in a 1996 report in JAMA describing the lifetime and in this community study; the difference observed was not simply due to a tendency for women to report disannual rates, female-to-male ratio, mean age-at-onset, and symptom profiles of major depression and bipolar tress or to seek help more readily than men. The lifetime rates of bipolar disorder, in contrast, disorder in an expanded analysis of the cross-national epidemiologic data.…”

supporting

confidence: 84%

Mood disorders across the continents

Negrão

1997

Mol Psychiatry

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supporting

confidence: 84%

Mood disorders across the continents

Negrão

1997

Mol Psychiatry

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“…Thus, cognitive and affective pathways may have the ability to influence each other reciprocally, having an acute effect on humor response (52). Our findings on the interaction of these pathways may be of clinical import in explaining sex discrepancies in the frequency of mood disorders, particularly the fact that women are about twice as likely as men to experience clinical symptoms of depression (27,28). It is reported that tasks demanding greater emotional processing tend to elicit less cognitive modulation and, thus, greater activation of the limbic system in women (53).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 78%

“…Of particular interest in this system is the NAcc, a region consistently associated with reward-related response to a large variety of positive stimuli, including humor (10,26). Accordingly, understanding sex differences in NAcc activity may aid in understanding the pathogenesis of neuropsychiatric disorders, most notably depression, an affliction that strikes twice as many women as men, with dramatic effects on the capacity to experience reward (27,28).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Sex differences in brain activation elicited by humor

Azim

Mobbs

et al. 2005

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

149

104

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With recent investigation beginning to reveal the cortical and subcortical neuroanatomical correlates of humor appreciation, the present event-related functional MRI (fMRI) study was designed to elucidate sex-specific recruitment of these humor related networks. Twenty healthy subjects (10 females) underwent fMRI scanning while subjectively rating 70 verbal and nonverbal achromatic cartoons as funny or unfunny. Data were analyzed by comparing blood oxygenation-level-dependent signal activation during funny and unfunny stimuli. Males and females share an extensive humor-response strategy as indicated by recruitment of similar brain regions: both activate the temporal-occipital junction and temporal pole, structures implicated in semantic knowledge and juxtaposition, and the inferior frontal gyrus, likely to be involved in language processing. Females, however, activate the left prefrontal cortex more than males, suggesting a greater degree of executive processing and language-based decoding. Females also exhibit greater activation of mesolimbic regions, including the nucleus accumbens, implying greater reward network response and possibly less reward expectation. These results indicate sex-specific differences in neural response to humor with implications for sex-based disparities in the integration of cognition and emotion.executive function ͉ male͞female ͉ reward ͉ functional MRI T he long trip to Mars or Venus is hardly necessary to see that men and women often perceive the world differently (1). Extensive investigation suggests that many perceptive incongruities are rooted in the brain's structural and functional organization. Notably, females have been credited with relatively more left-lateralized language and emotion processing, whereas males often tend toward right-lateralized visuospatial activity (2-5). Further, sex differences in interhemispheric communication and brain structure volumes suggest variation in how information is processed (2-4). If males and females diverge at levels of basic neural processing and structure, questions arise about how more complex levels of information integration are affected and how these differences relate to risk for cognitive and emotional dysfunction. Humor is a higher-order process crucial in human interaction, affecting a variety of phenomena on the psychological and physiological level (4-10). Although recent studies have begun to elucidate the cognitive and affective neural correlates of this human quality (7, 10), an examination of sex differences at the neural level remains largely unexplored.Previous investigations reach little consensus on how males and females differ in their appreciation and comprehension of humor. A number of studies show little disparity in humor responsiveness, particularly in frequency of laughter (11, 12), whereas others describe differences in situations in which humor is used and appreciated, in the self-reported enjoyment of different kinds of humor, and even in the meaning and function of laughter itself (11,(13)(14)(15). In the p...

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“…Specifically, females are two times as likely as males to experience depression (Kessler et al, 1993;Weissman et al, 1996;Weissman and Klerman, 1977), and this sex difference is robust, well-documented, and cross-cultural (Cyranowski et al, 2000;Hyde et al, 2008;Kuehner, 2003;Weissman and Klerman, 1977). Interestingly, one factor thought to contribute to the sex difference in depression is females' greater dependence on relationships or affiliative needs (Cyranowski et al, 2000;Nolen-Hoeksema, 2001).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Sex Differences in Depressive and Socioemotional Responses to an Inflammatory Challenge: Implications for Sex Differences in Depression

Moieni

Irwin

Jevtić

et al. 2015

Neuropsychopharmacol

226

238

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Substantial evidence demonstrates that inflammatory processes may underlie depression for a subset of patients, including work showing that healthy subjects exposed to an inflammatory challenge show increases in depressed mood and feelings of social disconnection. However, despite the fact that depression is two times as likely to occur in females than males, the vast majority of this work has been carried out in males. Thus, the objective of this study was to determine whether females (vs males) would show greater increases in proinflammatory cytokines, depressed mood, and social disconnection in response to an inflammatory challenge. One hundred and fifteen healthy participants (69 female) completed this double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized clinical trial in which participants were randomly assigned to receive either a single infusion of low-dose endotoxin (derived from Escherichia coli; 0.8 ng/kg of body weight) or placebo (same volume of 0.9% saline). Interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor-a (TNF-a), depressed mood, and feelings of social disconnection were assessed hourly. Results showed that endotoxin (vs placebo) led to increases in proinflammatory cytokines (TNF-a, IL-6), depressed mood, and feelings of social disconnection. Females exposed to endotoxin showed greater increases in depressed mood and feelings of social disconnection. Furthermore, increases in TNF-a and IL-6 were correlated with increases in social disconnection for females but not for males. These sex differences in the relationships between inflammatory and socioemotional responses to an inflammatory challenge may be particularly important for understanding why females are two times as likely as males to develop depressive disorders.

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Sex Differences and the Epidemiology of Depression

Cited by 1,684 publications

References 121 publications

Mood disorders across the continents

Mood disorders across the continents

Sex differences in brain activation elicited by humor

Sex Differences in Depressive and Socioemotional Responses to an Inflammatory Challenge: Implications for Sex Differences in Depression

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