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Is Women's Higher Depression Risk Due to Abuse?

Sept. 14, 2001 -- Women are twice as likely to suffer from depression than men, but until now, doctors have been unable to explain why.

In a new study, however, researchers found that women are more likely to be victims of violence during childhood and suggest that this likely accounts, at least in part, for more women having to seek treatment for depression.

Depression is a leading cause of illness in the U.S. Between 10%-25% of women will experience symptoms severe enough to warrant medical attention at some point in their lives, according to the researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health.

Researchers led by Lauren A. Wise, MSc, studied more than 700 women aged 36 to 45, 300 of whom had depression. Her group found that those who reported having been a victim of violence in the past were more than twice as likely to have depression. Further, women who had been victims of both physical and sexual abuse were more than three times as likely to suffer depression.

The study is published in the Sept. 15 issue of the medical journal The Lancet.

What's both shocking and of great concern is that the researchers found that among all the women questioned, half said they either feared being abused or had actually been abused during childhood or adolescence. And, disturbingly, among these women, 95% had actually been victims of physical abuse.

The researchers say that their study highlights the importance of doctors asking women about past abuse. However, don't leave this completely up to your doctor. Take the first step, if necessary, and let your doctor know that you have been a victim of abuse -- sexual, physical, or emotional.

Letting your doctor know about this now may help either to identify early depression or possibly even prevent it in the future.