Explains why male depression are usually underdiagnosed. How to
know when a man is depressed; Why psychologists are more likely to judge
male patient's condition as more severe than the female.
By
Peter Doskoch,
Lisa Tolin, published on March 01, 1997
Life
While traditional gender roles have discouraged women from speaking
their minds, they've also kept men from listening to their hearts. Since
many men are unable to express or acknowledge their emotions, even their
families and friends often aren't aware when they are depressed, says
Cambridge, Massachusetts, family therapist Terrence Real, author of I
Don't Want to Talk About It (Scribner, $24). Although women suffer from
mood disorders at nearly twice the rate of men, Real contends that
depression is vastly underdiagnosed in men because it manifests itself in
different ways than female depression does. A man you know may be
depressed, says Real, if he's been acting more aggressively; having more
difficulty being intimate and making emotional connections; becoming a
workaholic; or "medicating" himself with alcohol or drugs.
Unfortunately, ordinary folks aren't the only ones subject to
gender misconceptions about depression. Real cites an experiment in which
psychologists were given a hypothetical case study of one of two
depressed patients--a male and a female with identical symptoms. Despite
the patients' sameness, the psychologists were more likely to judge the
mate patient's condition as "severe" than the female's. Apparently, l
even experts believe that if a man outwardly displays the signs, he must
be really depressed.
Edited by Peter Doskoch
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