A recent article in Pediatrics reports that antidepressant use has increased substantially among young adults. Among men the increase since 2017 is 44%. Among women it's 58%.
Trend data suggests that antidepressant use is rising at similar rates among adults of all ages—in fact, perhaps at a higher rate among older adults. So, as a rough approximation, we can extrapolate growth among young adults to growth among all adults. If we use CDC figures from 2015-18 as a baseline, here's what we get:
If this is anywhere near accurate, it means that a third of white women are taking antidepressants. That's far higher than it is for any other race or gender. This has been true for some time, but the gap is widening and the sheer numbers are continuing to increase. What's going on?
All women use twice as often as men according to that chart.
This is probably like the divorce rate, women are socialized to be more accepting about their problems than men are, and seek care more often.
I think this is the primary factor.
I think there are 2 other big ones (but still not as big as that one, just definitely things that occur), and both mentioned in comments below:
2) Rampant, open misogyny with the rise of Trumpism
3) A history of doctors systemically pushing treatments on women because something must be "wrong" with them
The period of observation coincides with Trump. Just saying.
According to Rolling Stone the Trump White House was awash with Xanax:
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-white-house-drugs-speed-xanax-1234979503/
Once Jackson was removed, life in the Oval Office became unbearable. Or, why the WH staff was a revolving door with extremely short tenures, amirite?
As has been observed elsewhere, there has been at least one other notable incidence of the people at an increasingly chaotic leadership facility routinely being given stimulants and sedatives for nonmedical reasons ...
As one former senior administration official puts it: “You try working for him and not chasing pills with alcohol.”
"This has been true for some time, but the gap is widening and the sheer numbers are continuing to increase. What's going on?"
*Gestures Broadly*
It's hardly a new development. Doctors have been pushing pills to women for a long time.
"What a drag it is getting old
"Kids are different today, " I hear every mother say
Mother needs something today to calm her down
And though she's not really ill, there's a little yellow pill
She goes running for the shelter of her mother's little helper
And it helps her on her way, gets her through her busy day..
--Mick Jagger & the Rolling Stones, 1966
And those able to afford them, buy them. Which show class disparity in charts like these.
Thank you. I was going to say the thing.
Except Asians
I bet more of the prescriptions are for anxiety than depression. Same medicine, though.
Have you seen their husbands?
OMG, yes! Also, have you heard their husbands?
The answer, across all races, is men. Men are gross, and now women have a medical response.
Why are white women so depressed? Have you seen white men?
Damn, and here I thought my response might be original.
Well, at least I feel validated. [hugs special pillow]
White men.
Plus, easier access to the meds.
Women are more open to being treated with antidepressants. That's why I think it's really good that several male sports stars and musicians have been open about their struggles with depression.
Young women, working and maybe trying to establish families can't afford to not keep their shit together. They don't have time to be depressed and they live in a world that causes anxiety. They don't get enough sleep. Like most Americans, they are probably malnourished (too much processed, ready-made food and not enough real vegetables.)
And like others have said, so many man childs disguised as men.
It’s overdetermined. One thing not mentioned yet is that there is a big spike of antidepressant use among women with menopause. There is evidence doctors are using antidepressants off label as an alternative to hormone treatment.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-so-many-middle-aged-women-are-on-antidepressants-11648906393
I would imagine one factor would be the (what in my experience) is the increase of screening for depression in clinical settings. One finds what one is looking for.
Women go to the doctor with more regularity than men, so it is found in them more than in men.
Lol. White women are becoming aware of their relationship to white men.
Imagine being married to some hairy beast that weighs twice what you do and is way stronger than you are, who has the emotional range of a truck bumper and the vocabulary of worn-out brakes, and who wants sex from you whenever they want sex.
You'd take drugs, too, in that situation.
I've been so depressed the only reason I didn't knock myself off was because I didn't trust my even more suicidal ex with the kids. I've been so destitute when losing both my jobs while raising my children as a single parent, my teeth started falling out. But the only time I went to see a doctor was when a friend found me unable to even crawl without falling over because I had totally lost my equilibrium. And even then only because she took me to the emergency room. Never saw a psychologist. Nor a pharmacist. Nor a social worker. Why? Because I was raised to be a man. It's silly but very deep in me. I'm not allowed to be weak or to need help.
I see it even in my children, though I raised them as emancipated as I could. My daughter admits weaknesses, my son never. Even though she's the stronger of the two.
The question is not why women use more antidepressants but why men use less, and the answer is we try to conform to a cultural norm which prevents us from being honest about ourselves.
As for why Blacks and Asians use less, my guess is stronger communities.
PS I had a white male friend who locked himself up in his home when he contracted a lung infection. I had to break a window pane and a woman friend had to take him to the hospital. A day later, said the doctors, and he'd have been dead. And he preferred that to phoning for help. (His ravaged lungs did ultimately do him in, but only a decade later.)
Is it an age thing…women outlive their husbands….i see so many women floundering as they try to negotiate old age on their own…..also single women who are economically disadvantaged find aging and poverty a very depressing situation.
As others have pointed out, women have always used psych services about twice as much as men, and in particular get diagnosed with depression about twice as often. The 2:1 depression ratio gets established in adolescence, and much of that is probably hormonally driven. As for why white women in particular stand out, my guess is better health service access is the primary reason.
I'm assuming this is just prescribed, prescription antidepressants. A more accurate picture would need to include self medication with over the counter (and under the counter) meds like the traditional alcohol, cannabis, heroine, and other drugs.
I suspect a more inclusive survey would put men at a higher level than this survey.
Suburban, middle class American (white) women have suffered from depression and anxiety since the late 1950's, which is why Valium became the most prescribed drug of all time. Nothing has changed except the treatment.
I think it's because white women aren't "allowed" to get angry. There are a lot of things out there to be pissed about.
I haven't gotten nearly as depressed since I started expressing my anger.