Posted by Martinchen978 on December 19, 2018, at 16:34:47
In reply to Re: Do any antidepressants work better in men? » Martinchen978, posted by linkadge on December 19, 2018, at 16:14:38
> >Perhaps they work better in men because men wait longer until diagnosis and are more depressed than women when diagnosed.
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> Possibly, but usually groups are randomized to control for depression severity (i.e. both groups contain, on average, patients with the same average depression severity.
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> I agree with SLS though, that there is ample evidence that there are real differences in biology. Both male and female sex hormones are neuroactive and impact brain development in different ways. Taking testosterone vs. estrogen have distinct behavioral effects.
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> Linkadge
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>Yes, but on the other hand: men tend to downplay / trivialize their symptoms, although they may have really severe depression. Male pride again! Women are more health-conscious and tend to visit their doctors earlier and with milder symptoms ==> randomized control might be poor / faulty.
If a man visits a doctor and says: "I think I have depression, can't sleep, lots of ruminating, no appetite, no motivation..." and a women does the same: DO THEY HAVE THE SAME SEVERITY OF SYMPTOMS?" ;-)
That's why men die by suicide explicitly more often than women:
https://afsp.org/about-suicide/suicide-statistics/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_differences_in_suicideI also agree that there are real differences in biology and that different antidepressants have distinct behavioral effects on different genders, but it will be quite difficult to find really good studies... ;)
poster:Martinchen978
thread:1102438
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20181024/msgs/1102538.html