London: Women are up to 40pc more likely than men to develop mental health conditions, according to new analysis by a clinical psychologist at Oxford University.
The finding, based on analysis of epidemiological studies from the UK, US, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, has significant consequences for public health, according to Prof Daniel Freeman, who said that as millions of people in the UK alone were affected by mental illness, the consequences of gender disparities were widespread. Mental health campaigners said GPs needed to be aware of such disparities when deciding how to commission resources for treatment and support.
According to Freeman’s study, women are approximately 75pc more likely than men to report having recently suffered from depression, and around 60pc more likely to report an anxiety disorder.
Men are more likely to report substance misuse disorders — around two and a half times more frequently than women. Conditions such as ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) and schizophrenia did not have statistically significant differences between genders in adults.
Freeman said that because the conditions most affecting women were more common than those affecting men, overall mental health conditions were more common in women than in men, by a factor of 20pc to 40pc. The result is based on 12 large-scale epidemiological studies carried out across the world since the 1990s, for Freeman’s new book The Stressed Sex. Guardian News
