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Field
Abstract
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Before
Substantial gender disparities in depression and suicide rates are observed worldwide. While women are more frequently diagnosed with depression, men have a substantially higher rate of completed suicides. This project aims to investigate whether gender differences in the recognition of mental health issues and the likelihood of seeking help contribute to these patterns. The project consists of (1) an analysis of mental health diagnoses and suicide data using administrative records from Norway, and (2) an online experiment with a representative U.S. sample, aiming to identify whether mental health symptom recognition and willingness to seek help differ by gender.
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After
Worldwide, depression is more prevalent among women than men, but it is unclear whether this reflects differences in underlying mental health or diagnosis. This project seeks to understand behavioral drivers of the observed gender disparities in depression. We hypothesize that the gender gap partly arises from: (i) differences in the threshold at which potential patients interpret a set of symptoms as depression, and (ii) differences in how specialists diagnose and recommend further steps for male and female patients presenting similar symptoms. To isolate differences in reporting and diagnosing from differences in underlying symptoms, we design online experiments where participants evaluate hypothetical depression scenarios in which the severity and symptoms of depression are randomly assigned. Each scenario is defined by a randomly selected PHQ score and a corresponding set of symptoms and frequencies randomly drawn to match that score. Workers in online platforms evaluate hypothetical scenarios about themselves or about another hypothetical individual. Mental health specialists recruited through the American Psychological Association (APA) evaluate scenarios about hypothetical male and female patients.
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