Men and women with major depressive disorders have different gene expressions, according to the results of a study published in the medical journal Biological Psychiatry. Men and women may need different types of treatment for depression.
Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh in the United States and the Center for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto in Canada analyzed the brains of depressed people to establish whether there were differences between men and women.
For their study, more than 100 deceased brain patients were studied and compared, among them 50 served as a control group and 26 men and 24 women suffered from depressive symptoms. Scientists measured the amount of protein produced by a gene and found that it behaved differently in men and women.
Most of the genes that were transformed were changed in males or only females. However, the genes that were altered in males and females were altered in opposite directions.
“This article highlights the divergent molecular mechanisms contributing to the depression in both men and women,” said John Krystal, editor of Biological Psychiatry.
“These results have important implications for the development of potential new treatments and suggest that these new drugs should be developed separately for men and women,” said study author Dr Seney.
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