Mental disorders and gender

Gender is correlated with the prevalence of certain mental disorders, includingdepression, anxiety and somatic complaints.Major depression is twice as common in women. The lifetime prevalence rate of alcohol dependence is more than twice as high in men, and men are more than three times as likely to be diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder. There are no marked gender differences in the diagnosis rates of serious psychological disorders like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Sigmund Freud postulated that women were more prone to neurosis because they experienced aggression towards the self, which stemmed from developmental issues. Freud's postulation is countered by the idea that societal factors, such as gender roles, may play a major role in the development of mental illness. When considering gender and mental illness, one must look to both biology and social/cultural factors to explain areas in which men and women develop different mental illnesses. Societal patriarchy and gender roles have adverse effects on the psychological perceptions of both men and women. These gender roles may include the pressure on men not to show their emotions and the fact that women, on average, have lower self-esteem and sense of control than men. When certain factors, such as work outside the domestic sphere, are controlled, women and men tend to experience a full range of mental illnesses at approximately equal rates. In some cases when such factors were controlled, women showed lower rates of mental illness on the whole.

The object relations theory postulates that because women are mostly responsible for parenting, mothers emphasize the importance of relationships to their daughters while pushing their sons into independence. Sarah Rosenfield uses this theory to argue that males and females develop different types of symptoms when they are mentally ill. Men tend to display externalized symptoms, expressing problematic emotions in outward behavior. Women tend to develop internalized symptoms, where problematic feelings are directed towards the self. In accordance with the internalized-externalized dichotomy, women are more commonly diagnosed with mental illnesses such as anxiety, depression, and phobias. Once thought to be more common in women, borderline personality disorder has been found to be equally prevalent among both men and women. Men more commonly experience substance abuse, antisocial disorders, and violence. Both men and women are more likely to be institutionalized if their diagnosis is not typical of their gender (Martha Lang, 2006).

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