Benefits and gender differences in depression By Morgan and Laura

Benefits of diagnoses depression Advantages and positive outcomes that come from the diagnoses of a mental health condition:.diagnoses lead to treatment.earlier diagnoses results in earlier treatment and is usually more successful.treatment from diagnoses especially if found early can lead to decreased likelihood of relapse.reduces emotional toll on individual and family.reduction in suicidal attempts. Reduced symptoms

Studies into the benefits of diagnosing depression A hafflin- found that earlier detection, intention, and treatment promotes remission and prevents relapse Research ahs found that roughly ¾ of patients did better on medication for depression than on a placebo.

Issues regarding the benefits of diagnosis of depression Validity can be impacted because different people will be prone to different treatments as the benefits of each are subjective to each individual. Individual differences mean that even though these factors are generally beneficial, the whole population cannot be generalised to the effects shown in one study. As well as this not everyone who has depression is diagnosed as depressed so this can effect the research into the benefits as not all the people suffering will be represented in the target population. Reliability is also affected for similar reasons as the patients may not benefit from the same factors as are studied. Therefore it is difficult to replicate the findings of each study as each participant will respond differently to different treatments.

Gender differences in depression diagnoses Information surround the gender gap in depression:. Women are considerably more likely to be diagnosed with depression than men. This gender difference begin mid puberty and continues throughout adult life. There are a number of theories of why this may be. Depressed women also more regularly report the symptoms: disturbances of sleep and appetite, fatigue, somatic anxiety, and hypochondria than men

Studies into the gender difference in depression diagnoses Nolen hoeksema- theorised that women were more depressed than men due to different responses to low mood. She found that when women experienced low mood they tended to analyse why this might be the case, prolonging and enhancing low mood. Whereas men tended to use distraction tasks which was more successful at eliminating low mood. Heller found that the left hemisphere was stimulated during emotional and verbal tasks and an over stimulation of the left hemisphere is associated with depression, supporting the idea that women's increased chance of depression is due to analysis and discussion of low mood as opposed to distraction. One theory suggest women may be more empathetic and affected by life event than men leading to higher levels of depression. This is known as the cost-of-caring hypothesis.

Issues regarding gender differences in depression diagnosis It is difficult to say whether the statistics around gender differences in depression are completely reliable and valid. It may be that men appear to have lower levels of depression because they are less likely to vocalise feelings of depression and get help. It is also important to note that male suicide levels are higher than women's which is contradictory to the idea of females having higher levels of depression. Because women tend to report more of different symptoms to men it may suggest they are more susceptible to certain types of depression rather than depression as a whole.

Further points… The test and exam diagnosis may be tailored in a ways that biasedly diagnose women more often than men Post-natal depression may add to the higher levels of female depression in adult life. It is important to think about why female rates of depression are higher from mid puberty onwards, is it related to increase in hormones is it related to social pressures at that time.