Have you ever wondered why some people respond to certain medicines while others don’t? Some years ago, scientists noticed that a lot of their experiments were failing.
And they figured out why. For a long time, they had been testing medicines mostly on male animals. But in 2016, they decided to change their rules and start testing on both male and female animals.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH), a big health research group in the U.S., made this change. Suddenly, a lot more studies were being done about the differences between men and women.
Georgia Hodes, a professor at Virginia Tech, and Dawson Kropp, a student working with her, have taken a close look at these new studies.
They’re interested in learning more about why men and women might react differently to medicines for mental health problems like depression.
Key Findings: Men, Women, and Mental Health
Since the change in the rules, scientists have found out some interesting things. For example, women are twice as likely as men to get depression or anxiety.
Men might not get diagnosed with depression as often as they should. This might be because men often show their depression in different ways, like getting angry or using drugs or alcohol.
There are also differences in the brains of men and women. For example, certain types of cells in the brain behave differently in men and women. These cells might even react differently to stress.
Mice, Stress, and Sex Differences
Some studies even used mice to learn more about these differences. They found that female mice react to stress much more quickly than male mice.
After just six days of stress, female mice showed changes in their behavior. But it took three weeks for the same changes to show up in male mice.
The Pill Problem: One Size Doesn’t Fit All
The professors also talked about problems with the way medicines are made. They said that drug companies need to realize that depression is not the same for everyone.
A pill that works for one person might not work for another. This became clear when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had to remove some drugs from the market.
They found that eight out of ten of these drugs were more likely to cause problems in women than in men.
The Future: Personalized Treatment and Inclusion
Hodes and Kropp suggest that researchers should try to understand why these differences exist. This could help to make better treatments for men and women.
They also said that researchers should include people who are transgender or intersex in their studies. This would help to understand how these people fit into the larger picture.
Hormones can have a big effect on mental and physical health, so this could be really important.
Hodes said, “If we only use cisgender populations in our clinical studies, we are repeating the same mistakes made by past researchers who included only men.”
In short, it seems like a lot of progress has been made since 2016. But there’s still a lot to learn about the differences between men and women when it comes to mental health.
And with better research, we can hopefully find better treatments for everyone.
If you care about stroke, please read studies that diets high in flavonoids could help reduce stroke risk, and MIND diet could slow down cognitive decline after stroke.
For more information about depression, please see recent studies about a major cause of depression in older people, and results showing new drug could start fighting depression in just 2 hours.
The study was published in Nature Mental Health.
Follow us on Twitter for more articles about this topic.
Copyright © 2023 Knowridge Science Report. All rights reserved.
