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Schizophrenia is a long-term mental illness that affects the feelings, behaviors, and thinking patterns of individuals. Often, people living with schizophrenia lose touch with reality through psychosis, suffering from hallucinations and delusions. They can also experience disruptions in their relationships, careers, and daily activities. Many people exhibit disorganized thinking, social withdrawal, and low motivation.
Both men and women can be diagnosed with schizophrenia, but you may be surprised to learn that there are some significant differences between the two. Keep reading to learn more about what these are:
Symptoms
The signs of schizophrenia in women and men have been widely explored. Despite extensive research, the results remain inconclusive. So far, we know that several studies have pointed to more severe negative symptoms in men. They also scored higher for disorganization.
In a sample of patients with psychosis, there appeared to be a higher prevalence of depression in women and a lower prevalence of negative symptoms. Previous studies had also indicated that anxiety and depressive symptoms were higher in women, and that they were more likely to present with illogical thinking, inappropriate affect, and more bizarre behavior than men.
Diagnosis
Researchers don’t believe that more men than women, or vice versa, have schizophrenia. However, research does show that there are more new cases of schizophrenia detected in men than women. The ratio is nearly 1.4:1.
Several factors may affect how women and men are diagnosed. Hormonal differences, genetic predispositions, and greater symptom severity in men may all contribute. As previously mentioned, women often present with more affective symptoms, so they are often diagnosed later in life.
Age
Women and men are diagnosed with schizophrenia at vastly different ends of the age scale. The prevalence of the illness was higher in men aged 40 years and younger, with the peak diagnosis age being 20 to 29 years. It was the opposite in women, with there being a higher prevalence of women being diagnosed with schizophrenia over the age of 40, with two peak periods: 20 to 39 years and at the perimenopause period.
Researchers believe that the prevalence of schizophrenia increases after 40 years in women due to a decrease in oestrogen levels after menopause. There may also be psychological factors, such as loneliness, a lack of family support, and adverse life events.
Risk Factors
It has long been believed that a combination of genetic, physical, psychological, and environmental factors makes someone more or less likely to develop schizophrenia. Psychosocial factors also play a role, like marriage, pregnancy, education, and occupation.
However, researchers believe that these and other life events have different effects on men and women. Stratified analyses found that socioeconomic conditions, divorce rates, and urbanisation rates were positively associated with an increased schizophrenia risk in women. However, low socioeconomic conditions were thought to reduce the risk in men. There were also no strong associations between divorce rates and schizophrenia risks in men.
Treatment with Antipsychotics
Antipsychotics are medications that block or affect receptors for brain chemicals like serotonin and dopamine. By adjusting the chemicals, they help control psychosis and make it easy for people living with schizophrenia to distinguish reality from their imagination.
Both men and women are regularly prescribed antipsychotics, but how each gender responds to them can be different. Men and women have different physical structures, which means how the antipsychotics work in the body can be affected. Previous studies have also shown that the serum concentrations of antipsychotics in premenopausal women are higher than in men. In situations where the serum concentrations aren’t higher, the dopamine receptors are higher in women.
Despite this, there aren’t any gender-specific dosing recommendations, meaning there are risks of overmedicating. What’s more, women feel the burden of antipsychotic side effects more than men do, such as hormonal disruptions, weight gain, cardiac arrhythmias, drowsiness, and sexual dysfunction. Fortunately, psychotic symptoms respond to lower doses in women than in men.
Schizophrenia affects both men and women, but that doesn’t mean it affects them the same way. Several differences are crucial to be aware of, including age at diagnosis, side effects, and symptom severity. Understanding this information can be invaluable if you or someone you know is in the process of being diagnosed, or you want to understand how this mental illness is likely to affect them based on their gender.
