WUNRN
WOMEN & MENTAL HEALTH -
TRAUMA, GENDER DISPARITIES & RISKS, STRESS +
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WHO - World Health Organization
Link to Full Press Release http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2013/trauma_mental_health_20130806/en/
GUIDELINES ON MENTAL HEALTH CARE
AFTER TRAUMA & LOSS
6 August 2013 | GENEVA - WHO is releasing new clinical protocols and guidelines to health-care workers for treating the mental health consequences of trauma and loss.
Traumatic events
and loss a common experience
Traumatic events and loss are common in people’s lives. In a previous WHO study of 21 countries, more than 10% of respondents reported witnessing violence (21.8%) or experiencing interpersonal violence (18.8%), accidents (17.7%), exposure to war (16.2%) or trauma to a loved one (12.5%). An estimated 3.6% of the world's population has suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the previous year, the study showed.
Using the new protocol, which is co-published by the World Health Organization (WHO) with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), primary health-care workers can offer basic psychosocial support to refugees as well as people exposed to trauma or loss in other situations.
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GENDER & WOMEN'S MENTAL HEALTH -
WHO
Gender
disparities and mental health: The Facts
Mental illness is associated with a significant burden of morbidity and disability.
Lifetime prevalence rates for any kind of psychological disorder are higher than previously thought, are increasing in recent cohorts and affect nearly half the population.
Despite being common, mental illness is underdiagnosed by doctors. Less than half of those who meet diagnostic criteria for psychological disorders are identified by doctors.
Patients, too, appear reluctant to seek professional help. Only 2 in every 5 people experiencing a mood, anxiety or substance use disorder seeking assistance in the year of the onset of the disorder.
Overall rates of psychiatric disorder are almost identical for men and women but striking gender differences are found in the patterns of mental illness.
Why gender?
Gender is a critical determinant of mental health and mental illness. The morbidity associated with mental illness has received substantially more attention than the gender specific determinants and mechanisms that promote and protect mental health and foster resilience to stress and adversity.
Gender determines the differential power and control men and women have over the socioeconomic determinants of their mental health and lives, their social position, status and treatment in society and their susceptibility and exposure to specific mental health risks.
Gender differences occur particularly in the rates of common mental disorders - depression, anxiety and somatic complaints. These disorders, in which women predominate, affect approximately 1 in 3 people in the community and constitute a serious public health problem.
Unipolar depression, predicted to be the second leading cause of global disability burden by 2020, is twice as common in women.
Depression is not only the most common women's mental health problem but may be more persistent in women than men. More research is needed.
Reducing the overrepresentation of women who are depressed would contribute significantly to lessening the global burden of disability caused by psychological disorders.
The lifetime prevalence rate for alcohol dependence, another common disorder, is more than twice as high in men than women. In developed countries, approximately 1 in 5 men and 1 in 12 women develop alcohol dependence during their lives.
Men are also more than three times more likely to be diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder than women.
There are no marked gender differences in the rates of severe mental disorders like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder that affect less than 2% of the population.
Gender differences have been reported in age of onset of symptoms, frequency of psychotic symptoms, course of these disorders, social adjustment and long term outcome.
The disability associated with mental illness falls most heavily on those who experience three or more comorbid disorders. Again, women predominate.
Gender specific
risk factors
Depression, anxiety, somatic symptoms and high rates of comorbidity are significantly related to interconnected and co-occurrent risk factors such as gender based roles, stressors and negative life experiences and events.
Gender specific risk factors for common mental disorders that disproportionately affect women include gender based violence, socioeconomic disadvantage, low income and income inequality, low or subordinate social status and rank and unremitting responsibility for the care of others.
The high prevalence of sexual violence to which women are exposed and the correspondingly high rate of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) following such violence, renders women the largest single group of people affected by this disorder.
The mental health impact of long term, cumulative psychosocial adversity has not been adequately investigated.
Restructuring has a gender specific effect on mental health
Economic and social policies that cause sudden, disruptive and severe changes to income, employment and social capital that cannot be controlled or avoided, significantly increase gender inequality and the rate of common mental disorders.
Gender bias
Gender bias occurs in the treatment of psychological disorders. Doctors are more likely to diagnose depression in women compared with men, even when they have similar scores on standardized measures of depression or present with identical symptoms.
Female gender is a significant predictor of being prescribed mood altering psychotropic drugs.
Gender differences exist in patterns of help seeking for psychological disorder. Women are more likely to seek help from and disclose mental health problems to their primary health care physician while men are more likely to seek specialist mental health care and are the principal users of inpatient care.
Men are more likely than women to disclose problems with alcohol use to their health care provider.
Gender stereotypes regarding proneness to emotional problems in women and alcohol problems in men, appear to reinforce social stigma and constrain help seeking along stereotypical lines. They are a barrier to the accurate identification and treatment of psychological disorder.
Despite these differences, most women and men experiencing emotional distress and /or psychological disorder are neither identified or treated by their doctor.
Violence related mental health problems are also poorly identified. Women are reluctant to disclose a history of violent victimization unless physicians ask about it directly.
The complexity of violence related health outcomes increases when victimization is undetected and results in high and costly rates of utilization of the health and mental health care system.
For a complete referenced discussion of these issue please see the following document:
Women's mental
health: The Facts
- Depressive disorders account for close to 41.9% of the
disability from neuropsychiatric disorders among women compared to 29.3%
among men.
- Leading mental health problems of the older adults are
depression, organic brain syndromes and dementias. A majority are women.
- An estimated 80% of 50 million people affected by
violent conflicts, civil wars, disasters, and displacement are women and
children.
- Lifetime prevalence rate of violence against women
ranges from 16% to 50%.
- At least one in five women suffer rape or attempted
rape in their lifetime.
Depression, anxiety, psychological distress, sexual violence, domestic violence and escalating rates of substance use affect women to a greater extent than men across different countries and different settings. Pressures created by their multiple roles, gender discrimination and associated factors of poverty, hunger, malnutrition, overwork, domestic violence and sexual abuse, combine to account for women's poor mental health. There is a positive relationship between the frequency and severity of such social factors and the frequency and severity of mental health problems in women. Severe life events that cause a sense of loss, inferiority, humiliation or entrapment can predict depression.
Up to 20% of those attending primary health care in developing countries suffer from anxiety and/or depressive disorders. In most centres, these patients are not recognized and therefore not treated. Communication between health workers and women patients is extremely authoritarian in many countries, making a woman's disclosure of psychological and emotional distress difficult, and often stigmatized. When women dare to disclose their problems, many health workers tend to have gender biases which lead them to either over-treat or under-treat women.
Research shows that there are 3 main factors which are highly protective
against the development of mental problems especially depression. These are:
- having sufficient autonomy to exercise some control in
response to severe events.
- access to some material resources that allow the
possibility of making choices in the face of severe events.
- psychological support from family, friends, or health
providers is powerfully protective.
WHO's Focus in
Women's Mental Health
- Build evidence on the prevalence and causes of mental
health problems in women as well as on the mediating and protective
factors.
- Promote the formulation and implementation of health
policies that address women's needs and concerns from childhood to old
age.
- Enhance the competence of primary health care providers
to recognize and treat mental health consequences of domestic violence,
sexual abuse, and acute and chronic stress in women
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Women suffer up to 40 per cent more mental
health problems than men due to stress of juggling roles, study claims
The investigation found that psychological disorders are 20 to 40 per cent more common in women than men
By Tara Brady - 23 May 2013
Women experience more mental health problems than men due to
the stress of juggling many roles, according to a new book.
Professor Daniel Freeman, of the University of Oxford, said the
first systematic investigation of national mental health surveys showed psychological
disorders are 20 to 40 per cent more common in women than men in any given
year.
Stress related to pressure on women to fill many different roles
is likely to be a major factor for higher rates of everything from depression
to phobias, according to Professor Freeman, a clinical psychologist.
The investigation found that
psychological disorders are 20 to 40 per cent more common in women than men
'The biggest discrepancies occur in conditions for which we know
the environment, rather than genes, makes the greatest causal contribution,' he
said.
'It's certainly plausible that women experience higher levels of
stress because of the demands of their social role.
'Increasingly, women are
expected to function as carer, homemaker, and breadwinner - all while being
perfectly shaped and impeccably dressed.
'Given that domestic work is undervalued, and considering that
women tend to be paid less, find it harder to advance in a career, have to
juggle multiple roles, and are bombarded with images of apparent female
'perfection', it would be surprising if there weren't some emotional and
psychological cost.
'These are the kind of pressures that can leave women feeling as
if they've somehow failed; as if they don't have what it takes to be
successful; as if they've been left behind. And those kinds of feelings can
lead to psychological problems like anxiety and depression.'
Men have higher rates of alcohol,
drug and anger problems, according to Professor Freeman
'The Stressed Sex: Uncovering the Truth about Men, Women, and
Mental Health', published today discloses that women have higher rates of
depression, panic disorder, phobias, insomnia, post-traumatic stress disorder
and eating disorders.
Men have higher rates of alcohol, drug and anger problems,
according to Professor Freeman and co-author Jason Freeman, a writer and
editor.
Professor Freeman is a professor of clinical psychology, a Medical
Research Council (MRC) Senior Clinical Fellow, in the University of Oxford's
Department of Psychiatry and an honorary consultant clinical psychologist at
Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust.
He said traditionally it has been said that overall rates of
mental health problems in men and women are the same 'but the evidence shows
that this is simply not the case'.
'Overall, in the current environment women are bearing the brunt
of mental health problems,' he said.
'But let's be clear, even for problems that are more common in
women - such as anxiety and depression - they also afflict very significant
numbers of men.
'So it would be wrong to categorise mental health troubles as
essentially a female problem. Rates of mental health problems are too high in
both genders.'
According to Mind, the mental health charity, around 300 people
out of 1,000 will experience a mental health problem in Britain every year.
Around 230 of these will visit a GP, 102 will be diagnosed with a
mental health problem, 24 will be referred to a specialist psychiatric service
and six will become inpatients in psychiatric hospitals.
While women are more likely to report psychological problems than
men, Professor Freeman said this does not explain the overall gender
differences.
He acknowledged that the findings are bound to be controversial
but said the issue cannot be ignored because psychological disorders account
for almost half of all ill-health in under 65s and affect up to nine million
adults in the UK.
In fact, Professor Freeman argues that the taboo around gender
differences in mental health must be broken in order to tackle disorders more
successfully in future.
'Given the extent of the burden on society and individuals alike,
understanding what causes mental health problems, and thus being better placed
to prevent and treat it, is vitally important,' he added.
'But our ability to do that is going to be hampered if we assume
that gender isn't significant. In fact, it may often be a crucial contributory
factor.