Sex Differences and Psychiatric Disorders

TLDR

Since the early 2000s, more than 80 epidemiological studies have reported psychiatric disorder prevalence separately for males and females worldwide. This review examines those studies to determine whether overall prevalence, specific disorder types, and temporal trends differ by sex, and to assess the implications for sex‑role theories.

Abstract

Since the turn of the century, over 80 studies designed to count both untreated and treated cases of psychiatric disorder have been carried out in different parts of the world; in the majority of these, data were reported for males and females separately. The procedures and results of these epidemiological studies of "true" prevalence are analyzed with respect to several questions: Are total rates over all types of functional disorder higher among males or among females? Which types of disorder are more prevalent among males and which among females? How do sex differences in overall rates and in different types of disorder vary over time? What are the implications of the findings for theory about sex roles and psychiatric disorder?