Males
and females are biologically different in many ways. There is even a difference in how the sexes
deal with stress. One sex is at a higher
risk of developing psychiatric disorders that are related to stress. Psychiatric disorders, including mood and
anxiety disorders, affect around 20% of the population in the United States. Mental health is a major concern in the United
States, and many of these disorders stem from stress. As we already know, one of the main pathways
for stress is the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. In order for the HPA axis to be turned on, cortioctropin-releasing
factor (CRF) initiates the axis. One
study suggests that males and females respond to CRF and the HPA axis differently. This study was conducted on male and female
rats. The male rodents released less adrenocorticotropic
hormone (ACTH) and corticosterone (which is the equivalent of cortisol for
humans), and the stress hormones remained elevated for less time compared to
the female rats. There seems to be a decent
amount of research on rats that have the same conclusions. But, there is not a simple
answer for humans. Some studies find
that females tend to have higher ACTH and cortisol levels, while other studies
find females have lower levels, and others find there is not a difference in
the concentration of these hormones. Therefore,
there is not definite evidence that ACTH and cortisol levels differ in male and
female humans.
Demographically,
women tend to have a higher prevalence of depression and anxiety disorders after
puberty. This can be linked to the
gonadal hormone regulation of CRF. It is
suggested that CRF expression is increased in females, which makes women vulnerable
to anxiety and mood disorders.
There
are many indicators that women react to stress in a different way than men
do. However, there are still some
inconsistencies with the research. Further
research needs to be conducted in order to determine if women and men react to
stress differently, which will ultimately lead to an explanation of the differing
degrees of vulnerability to mood and anxiety disorders.
Reference:
Bangasser,
D. A., & Valentino, R. J. (2012). Sex difference in molecular and cellular
substrates of stress. Cellular and
Molecular Neurobiology, 32(5), 709-723. doi:10.1007/s10571-012-9824-4
I find it interesting that women have a higher prevalence of anxiety and mood disorders, as you stated. I was just listening to one of the TED Radio Hour podcasts called "Getting Better", and one of the things they talked about was chronic pain. A pediatric anesthesiologist explained that often times, chronic pain gets attributed to a psychological condition, especially if the patient is a female and the physician is a male. In some cases, that's not the real cause (e.g., they had someone come in with chronic pain that was eventually diagnosed with myalgic encephalomyelitis), but in many cases there is a close link between chronic pain and depression. It makes me wonder if, given what you're saying, this idea that women have higher CRF expression which could cause more mood disorders is what leads more physicians to diagnose female patients that have chronic pain with a mood disorder like depression.
ReplyDeleteI am really interested in the sex differences in mental disorders and recovery. I feel that we often treat males and females with the same methods for diseases, however the more research is done on sex differences, the more comes out about how this may not be the best approach. Due to hormone level differences, males and females can experience disease and treatment differently. And if men and women are having different prevalence of mood and anxiety disorders due to biological differences, shouldn't we be finding different more successful treatments and medications for each individually? Thank you for sharing!
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