Gender differences in the rates of exposure to stressful life events and sensitivity to their depressogenic effects

Objective: Women are at greater risk for major depression than men. The aut hors sought to determine whether the gender difference in prevalence for ma jor depression was due to more frequent exposure to stressful life events a nd/or greater sensitivity to their depressogenic effects. Method: Male-male, female-female, and male-female twin pairs from a populat ion-based registry were personally interviewed. Each interview assessed the occurrence, to the nearest month, of 18 personal and social network classe s of stressful life events and episode onsets of major depression. Standard logistic regression analyses were conducted for the same-sex pairs, and ea ch female twin in the opposite-sex pairs was compared with her male co-twin by using conditional logistic regression. Results: Women consistently reported higher rates of housing problems, loss of confidant, crises and problems getting along with individuals in their proximal network, and illness of individuals within their distal network. I n both the same-sex and opposite-sex samples, men reported higher rates of job loss, legal problems, robbery, and work problems. Consistent sex differ ences in the depressogenic effect of stressful life events were seen for th ree event categories: men were more sensitive to the depressogenic effects of divorce or separation and work problems; women were more sensitive to th e depressogenic effects of problems getting along with individuals in their proximal network. None of the gender difference in prevalence of major dep ression could be explained by differing rates of or sensitivities to stress ful life events. Conclusions: Women reported more interpersonal whereas men reported more le gal and work-related stressful life events. Most life event categories infl uenced the risk for major depression similarly in the two sexes. The result s suggest that the greater prevalence of major depression in women versus m en is due neither to differences in the rates of reported stressful life ev ents nor to differential sensitivity to their pathogenic effect.