Why are women disproportionately affected by depression and anxiety, while autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are more common in men? Aside from societal expectations, overlooked symptoms and underdiagnosis, there may actually be a neurological explanation for these disparities, new research suggests.
The findings may support the development of sex-specific interventions for more effective mental-health therapies in the future and improve our understanding of the biological mechanisms that underlie these conditions.
Historically, males have been overrepresented in both human and animal research, meaning our understanding of sex-specific differences in brain structure is limited.
"Brain imaging has historically largely collapsed females and males into the same sample, in spite of longstanding evidence that there are structural differences in female and male brains," Ryan D'Arcy, a professor at the Center for Brain Health at the University of British Columbia, Canada, who studies sex-specific differences in brain structure, told Newsweek.
"It is important to understand specific results for females and males separately for general knowledge and optimized health/medical treatments and interventions."
Previous analysis has shown that women are nearly twice as likely to develop anxiety and mood disorders during their lifetime, while men are three times more likely to be diagnosed with autism, and twice as likely to be diagnosed with ADHD. Women also tend to experience more side effects when taking medications like antidepressants and antipsychotics.
Studies in animals have suggested that some of these discrepancies may be due to differences in brain microstructure, which describes the arrangements, characteristics and concentration of different cells in the brain.
To explore this variability in humans, researchers from New Zealand and the U.S. analyzed MRI brain scan data from over 1,000 young adults and identified substantial differences in the microscopic cellular structure in brain regions known to influence our mental health, emotions, decision-making and memory processing.
The biochemical basis for these differences is not entirely clear, but animal models have shown that sex hormones like estrogen and testosterone may play a crucial role in brain development, particularly in areas associated with emotional processing.
"Biological factors such as chromosomes and hormones most certainly are considerations, as are environmental factors that influence the organization of brain networks," D'Arcy, who was not involved in this research, said.
More research is needed to confirm these findings, but the study highlights the importance of moving away from a one-size-fits-all approach to mental health.
The full study can be read in the journal PNAS.
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