Mental Health Blog

Women and Depression | Getting the mental health help you need

Written by MaryAPRN.com/ Advanced Practice Psych LLC | Thu, Jun 25, 2015 @ 11:30 AM
 

Relevant studies around depression in women are widely known,

yet there seems to be a lack of data and understanding once the data is broken down to color of the skin and location, this is not right.  According to a recent study published in JAMA Psychiatry:

Black women are much less likely to report suffering from depression than white women are, a new study suggests.

Researchers culled responses from more than 1,400 black women and more than 340 white women who took part in a national survey, and found that only 10% of black women reported struggling with the mental health disorder at some point in their lives, compared with 21% of white women.

White women were also much more likely than black women to say they'd had major depression within the past 12 months (almost 9% vs. 5.5%, respectively), and to have had a mood disorder at some point in their life (about 22% vs. nearly 14%, respectively).

Where women lived also played a part in depression rates, the investigators reported in JAMA Psychiatry.
Among black women, 4% of those in rural areas and 10% of those in cities said they had suffered major depression in their lifetime, while 1.5% of those in rural areas and 5% of those in cities said they'd had major depression within the past 12 months.

Black women and depression in rural areas were also less likely than those in cities to report having a mood disorder in their lifetime (almost 7% vs. 14%, respectively), or in the past 12 months (3% vs. more than 7%, respectively).
The reverse was true among white women, the study found. Those in rural areas were more likely than those in cities to report having major depression or mood disorder within the past 12 months (10% vs. almost 4%, respectively).

Mental Health Help with gender depression | Getting the help you need is personal, no one should have to struggle when there are many therapies out there to help lead better lives, get what you need, life matters.