Populations Summary

Everyone's depression is different. Professionals like to categorize illness, but this is not very useful with diagnosis and treatment. There are lessons to learn in how different people from different backgrounds experience depression. In the end, depression must be studied in context.

There are twice as many women as men who suffer from depression because of both chemical and external factors. This gender difference arises after puberty (does not include children). Women are afflicted by different kinds of depression (post-partum, premenstrual and menopausal) in addition to the types that afflict men. Men synthesize serotonin 50% faster than women, which may make them more resilient to depression. Women's vulnerability to depression has been attributed to social factors and there are many theories on the subject.

George Brown, an English psychologist, proposed that women's depression occurs out of concern for their children because the rates of...