Gender and Its Effects on Psychopathology

This book taught me that the relationships between gender and psychopathology are much more interesting and important than I had recognized. The issues this book discusses arise daily in my clinical work and deserve more attention than they are receiving from psychopathology researchers. Indispensable reading for clinicians and researchers alike. Jacqueline B. Persons, Ph.D., Director, San Francisco Bay Area Center for Cognitive Therapy, Oakland, California This volume reviews the most reliable findings about the relation of gender to specific psychiatric disorders in both the general population and patients, and seeks to explain the well-substantiated observation that women have more depression and anxiety, while men exceed women in alcohol and drug dependence and antisocial personality as adults and more oppositional and conduct disorder as children. An important contribution of this book is that it considers gender differences in the symptom patterns and course of disorder as well as its occurrence. Most previous efforts to understand why men and women have such different frequencies of psychiatric disorders have speculated that it is explained by culturally prescribed roles for the two sexes, and have ignored details of the age of onset, the specific symptoms presented, and recovery and relapse rates, all of which are important in determining the prevalence of disorders. While the book's authors give ample attention to the role of cultural factors, they also consider the evidence for effects of hormonal differences by including animal studies and the timing of women's symptoms as related to menstruation, pregnancy, and menopause. The linking of biologic and cultural hypotheses is ingenious and sophisticated. The authors are to be congratulated on their clarity and for their sober weighing of the evidence for all the major etiological theories about gender differences in psychopathology. The volume will serve as an essential guide to future research for it shows what we don't know as well as what we do, and provides excellent models for what an etiological study needs to include. Lee Robins, Ph.D., Professor of Social Science in Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri

This book discusses gender differences in psychopathology, including susceptibility to psychiatric disorders, the timing of their onset, their course, and their response to treatment. Dr. Ellen Frank and colleagues show how studying these differences helps clinicians in predicting patients' responses to treatment.Starting in embryonic development, gender has profound influences on us. Endocrine receptors in the brain affect cognition, mood, and behavior differently in males and females, and gender roles inevitably affect our psychosocial experiences. It should be no surprise that men and women have differences in vulnerability for developing many forms of psychopathology, in expression of symptoms and in response to treatment. Gender and Its Effect on Psychopathology examines the gender differences in psychopathology, including susceptibility to psychiatric disorders, the timing of their onset, their course, and their response to treatment. Dr. Ellen Frank and colleagues show how studying these differences helps clinicians in predicting patients' responses to treatment. This book reviews • The types of depression to which women are prone, the hormonal basis of mood disorders in women, and the specific clinical phenomenology of reproduction-related depressions• Findings on how gender difference in socialization affect the development and symptoms of psychiatric disorders• Studies hormonal and pubertal changes that may explain the rise in rates for depression among females relative to males between ages 10 and 15 years• Epidemiological findings on the prevalence of depression among women and discusses plausible explanations for these findings• Gender differences in antisocial and borderline personality disorders, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, and substance dependence A synopsis of current research on gender differences, Gender and Its Effects on Psychopathology provides practitioners with invaluable insight into understanding and treating patients with a variety of psychiatric disorders.