Depression in males: is this matter more serious?

global scenario for depression as an illness is quite disappointing. Women were known to have higher prevalence rate for depression than men but this notion is falling apart as men are now outnumbering women in this regard. According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), about six million American men suffer from depression every year. 1 Researchers believe that typical depressive symptoms may not represent men's depression. Their expression would manifests as: increase in fatigue, irritability and anger and loss of interest in work and hobbies. In order to mask these symptoms, men tend to use drugs, alcohol or would self medicate. They also try to hide it with overwork or exposure to harm by risky behaviour. It is an established fact that men commit suicide more often than women. Men are said to be notorious in expressing their emotions and probably have the ingrained belief that it is a sign of weakness and does not conform well to their gender role. 1 It has also been revealed in studies that new fathers are also vulnerable to postpartum depression. The StatsCan 2 Canadian Community Health Survey on Mental Health and well-being found that 10% men experienced symptoms of surveyed mental health disorders. In the United Kingdom, studies have shown a major shift in the traditional gender imbalance with depression rising among men and decreasing among women. Among Canadians of all ages, four of every five suicides are in males. In UK, men are around three times more likely to kill themselves than women. In New South Wales, Australia, suicide has taken over car accidents as the leading cause of death in males since 1991. 2 Walinder and Rutz 3 have proposed the concept of 'Male Depressive Syndrome' that comprises of: low stress tolerance, an acting-out behaviour, a low impulse control, substance abuse, hereditary loading of depressive illness, alcoholism and suicide. They support this notion by data study showing stress-precipitated, cortisol-induced, serotonin-related and anxiety-driven depressive illness most often seen in males. Aggression and anger attacks among depressed males as a result of low impulse control are also observed in a study. 4 Male depression has been related to stress reaction combined with serotonin deficiency and hypercortisolaemia. 5 Regarding the Male Depressive Syndrome, researchers do emphasize on further work focusing on the gradual development of (masked) depression by men in mainly non-clinical samples. 6 There is a struggle even about finding …