Female vulnerability to depression

Evidence from several sources indicates that there is an increased risk of neuroses among women. This evidence derives from psychiatric in-patient samples Over the years a variety of social risk factors have been examined. These include, among others, maternal loss in childhood The evidence for some of these factors, such as parental loss Indeed, it was on the basis that the above factors in their own right did not seem to correlate significantly with depression in women that They found that four 'vulnerability' factors (identified as 'maternal loss before the age of 15 years', 'three or more children under the age of 14 years', 'lack of marital intimacy' and 'lack of employment outside the home') contributed to depressive illness only when combined with a stressful life event ('provoking agent'). They argued that a synergistic (interaction) effect on the risk of depression was exerted by the combination of a 'vulnerability' factor and 'provoking' life event. The findings of their study have been discussed at some length in the literature The synergy identified by Brown & Harris was, however, 'model' dependent, since the use of an alternative statistical model (i.e. multiplicative) failed to confirm the interaction Brown & Harris' additive model is less frequently preferred by statisticians