(Sci Tech Daily) — A team of Université Laval scientists may have discovered why severe depression affects women and men differently, according to a study published on January 10, 2022, in Nature Communications. The researchers examined the brains of people with depression at the time of death and discovered alterations located in different parts of the brain for each sex. They also identified a potential depression biomarker in women.
“Depression is very different between men and women,” said lead author Caroline Ménard, professor at the Faculty of Medicine at Université Laval and researcher at the CERVO Brain Research Centre. “In women, the disease is twice as common, the symptoms are different, and the response to antidepressants is not the same as in men. Our goal was to find out why.” (…)