Depression's Double Standard. Why depression affects women more than men.

Kristen Leutwyler's article in Scientific American magazine points out how much more severely women are affected by depression than men. Over the past few years, researchers have been studying numerous cases of depression and have found that in nearly every case, women are affected by depression nearly twice as much as men. This phenomenon went undiscovered for quite a while and even since it's discovery, little has been done to determine why this is. Scientists …

…prevent or cut down on the amount of depression affecting women, but now that we better understand what's going on we can work to make it better in the future. These discoveries were only made within the past several years, so this information is still new to us. Over time we will develop treatments to counteract the depression and make life more enjoyable for men and women. Leutwyler, K. (1995). Depression's double standard. Scientific American, 272 (6), 23-26.