Depression in woman: a silent epidemic

Abstract

Introduction
International data show that depression is the leading cause of illness and disability in women. All studies converge on this point: female population is at greater risk than male population to incure a mental disorder, depression particulary. Medical research relates this high risk with biological differences between men and women, and biological feminine cycle is considered the cause of several depressive events (Pregnancy, Post-partum, Depression, Premenstrual Syndrome and Postmenopausal Depression).

Goal
to evidence gender biases in medical research that overestimates biological / genetic risk factors and underestimates psychosocial and social-relational risk factors.

Methodology
to visualize and to compare researches on fields quite different from those of medical research, such as the field of work and domestic violence; from which this evidence emerges: women suffer from depression primarily for specific context conditions in which they are immersed.

Outcomes
the assessment of sectoral and long-range studies has proved that the prevalence of depression in female population is related with specific psycho-social and relational risk factors (stress, burn-out, violence)

Conclusions
The results point out the necessity of a gender-sensitive depression prevention. Therefore, it should be addressed to the most vulnerable subjects: girls and women (between 15 and 44 years of age). Prevention programmes should be focused on daily life new risk factors, since these factors are responsible for women’s low health: stress, linked to double work and family overload; burn-out relating to motherhood, to the totalizing care of others to the detriment /denial of personal care; Domestic violence.