There Are Sex Differences In The Trajectory Of Depression Symptoms Through Adolescence, With Implications For Treatment And Prevention

This study has been following children from birth in the 1990s through to today, providing an overview of development from childhood all the way through to adulthood.  The team looked at participants’ scores on the short mood and feelings questionnaire from the ages of 10 to 22. This questionnaire measures depressive symptoms over the previous two weeks, asking participants to indicate whether statements like “I felt miserable or unhappy” are true for them. Over the 12 year time period, participants had been given the questionnaire on eight separate occasions (although not everyone had completed every questionnaire: 7,335 participants completed the first questionnaire, decreasing to 3,850 by the final one). The researchers fit a model to this data, showing the path of depressive symptoms for each individual through adolescence and early adulthood. They then averaged these curves across males and females, to give the general trajectory for each sex. The team found that there were key differences between male and female participants. Females had higher depressive symptoms in general throughout their adolescence, except for between ages 10 and 11, when symptoms were higher for males. The symptoms didn’t peak until around age 20 for both sexes, but there were sex differences in the age at which symptoms increased most rapidly: for females this occurred at 13.7 years old, while for males it was much later, at 16.4 years old.  Via Kwong et al, 2019 The researchers say tha...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Developmental Gender Mental health Sex Source Type: blogs