An article in Scientific American called “Why are so many womendepressed”, by Ellen Liebenluft, focused on the reason why females are moredepressed than males. First, Depression comes with a variety of symptoms. Forexample, a person suffering from depression may experience sleep disturbances,hopelessness, and feeling of worthlessness, difficulty concentrating, experiencefatigue and sometime even delusions. Depression is very common among women. Ifaffects nearly 20 percent of women worldwide. Now we have to focus on thereasons that would factor to Depression. Researchers may say that the women havesuffered a form of Physical, sexual abuse, harassment or discrimination is toblame for the depression. But it does get more complicated than that. Morethings can lead to depression too. The article points out that the increasedrisk for depression in women today might come from genetics, the effects ofstressful events in their lives, social pressures, or the combination of allthree. Modern neuroscience uses neuroimaging by PET and MRI scans can revealthat anger and sadness have a biological basis. It can see the circuits of thebrain becoming activated when these emotions change and arise. The first step infiguring out why depression is more common in women, scientists have to studyhow genetics and the environment divide us, men and women, which influencedepression. The environment can have positive and negative Affects on anindividual. It’s the fact that the environment can make a person feel stressful,such as having a stressful job that they dislike. Therefore, keeping his/herfeelings bottled up inside which can may result in depression. The differencesbetween the X and Y-chromosomes between men and women affect them in differentways. The differences affect brain development so that men and women havedifferent needs, different reactions to everyday environmental stressors. Postpubertal men and women have different levels of circulating gonadal steroidswhich somehow puts women more at risk for depression. Girls become moresusceptible to depression after puberty because the girls begin to menstruatetherefore, they experience hormonal fluxes. Another study has shown thatestrogen also might cause depression. When a women is stressed, the adrenalglands that are controlled by the pituitary gland in the brain-secretes highlevels of a hormone, called Cortisol. Cortisol’s duty is to increase theactivity of the body’s metabolic as well as its immune system. If the stressincrease cortisol secretion, it tends to have a negative affect on the pituitarygland. For example, during menstruation, women experience mood swings. Thehigher the cortisol and estrogen levels, they’re most likely to suffer fromdepression. There was a study done at the Medical College of Virginia. In astudy of 2,060 female twins, the researchers wanted to see if genetics had to dowith their depression. Some twins in both groups had recently lost a loved oneor had a divorce. In contrast, the women who didn’t have a family history ofdepression, the stressful events raised their risk of depression by only 6percent. The same study showed that 14 percent of women who did have a familyhistory of depression had become depressed due to the crisis that occurred intheir lives. Researchers also pointed out that the hormones estrogen andcortisol aren’t the only hormones that lead to depression in females. The nexthormone is known as Melatonin. The Pineal gland secretes the Melatonin at night.
In the morning the melatonin level drops. It explains why many people sufferfrom Seasonal Affectiveness Disorder (SAD). Seasonal changes change a person’smood as well as change his/her outlook on life. For example, in the winter wetend to stay indoors. As a result we feel trapped and isolated, while in thesummer there are many things to do such as going on vacation with family andenjoying life outdoors. Just when you think nothing else is to blame fordepression, there are more reason’s to add to the list. The difference’s ingender is another characteristic. The women tend to keep things inside,resulting in depression and anxiety. On the other hand, men tend to use alcoholand use severe aggression, causing them to act out their feelings. Nowadays,Scientists are treating patients with drugs, such as Prozac. Prozac is anantidepressant. The patient responds to the medication or psychotherapy or both.
Depression is increasing so much that the cost of treatment throughout the USEconomy is $30.4 billion each year. The more depression spreads, the morestudies and treatments are to derive, which provides us with more logicalreasons for the causes of depression.
Psychology
