Should a depressed man be treated the same way as a woman with depression?

A larger proportion of women suffer from major depressive disorder in comparison to men. In fact women have nearly a two-fold greater lifetime risk of getting major depression compared to men. It's thought that the reason that more women suffer from depression than men, is because they are exposed to a lot of hormonal changes during pregnancy, the postpartum period (i.e. changes after giving birth), menopause, and during their menstrual cycles.

It should therefore come as no surprise that hormonal imbalances need to be treated in women. The most common hormone deficiencies that can specifically lead to depression in women are estrogen and progesterone. Females can take appropriate supplements, herbs and hormonal medications to balance these hormones, and they are effective for treating and resolving depression. Men on the other hand would not take these same medications to treat their depression.

Estrogen and progesterone therapy although effective for treating depression in women, would not be used to treat depressed men. However depressed men do often have a hormonal deficiency that contributes to depression. In fact, nearly 3 times more men with depression have a testosterone deficiency in comparison to men without depression.

Using testosterone supplementation to treat men with depression has been found to be very effective. A recent study showed that more than 50% of older men with depression were 'cured' (went into remission) when treated with testosterone. At this stage there are no studies using testosterone therapy in females with depression, although I think that in the future it's possible that low dose testosterone could be used.

Thyroid and adrenal hormone deficiencies and excesses are further physical imbalances that are known to contribute to depression. Both of these types of hormonal imbalances are present in men and women with depression, and in this instance, men and women would be treated in a similar manner.

In one recent study, patient's with depression who had mild thyroid failure were more likely to have recurrent depression, longer disease duration, higher number of episodes of major depression, higher number of suicide attempts and problems with being overweight, in comparison to patients with good thyroid function.

There are at least 20 physical or biochemical imbalances that can lead to depression. The most common types of physical causes of depression include nutrient deficiencies, adverse reactions to food, toxic overload, and hormonal imbalances. In most cases treatment is straight forward, and natural supplements and hormones can be used.

In most of these circumstances, men and women with depression would be treated in the same manner, except for the hormonal imbalances that we've discussed. Because of the differences in occupations that women and men routinely are involved in, it is however more likely that more depressed men, rather than women, are affected by toxic overload.

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