Letters to the Editor
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This Study Sponsored by....
Hmmmm... I detect the cologne-and-dusting powder scent of Big Pharma's search for a new market niche. Double that dose, gals!
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What did they control for?
Men on average die at a younger age than women. Did they control for men and women of the same age? Men and women of different ages who are widowed? Still married? What?
If men die sooner, then more women are likely to be widowed than men, as each population ages. Maybe old women are lonely and sad because their husbands have died before them. I'd be probably be really depressed if my husband of many decades was dead, too.
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Women Live Longer and Have Less Money
Elderly women are much more likely to be widowed than their male counterparts, and if they are married, are more likely to be caretakers for spouses with health problems. They are also more likely to be poor than men.
All of these strike me as good reasons to be depressed.
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Well I'm not elderly by any means
but check out the way society works - 65 year old "hotties" like Harrison Ford with tiny young perky chick? Clooney's dating his latest 25 year old?
And we make fun of Demi?
Older women are more likely to be alone, and less likely to find a new partner.
A gentleman sits near me at work - his wife died in 2006. He's probably around 65 or so. He's remarried. Now I can't speak for his actual story - maybe he already "knew" his new wife (ahem), but I'm decades from 65 and can't for the life of me find a decent partner.
I went to our office X-mas party alone and another gentleman, this one in his late 50's and rather tummy heavy, showed up with his date - a lovely, sexy woman (also very intelligent and funny, sat at our table) of about late 30's. She was all over him. A good match.
The world ain't fair, and older woman take the hit. But note that they don't give up so easily - women are used to getting the shaft (as it were) and while it pisses them off (leading to depression), they keep on keeping on. It's the woman's way.
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On Broadsheet, every male/female news tidbit is fodder for speculation! Let's all weigh in! Yippee!
I dunno -- your summary of the news item, which itself is a summary of a journal article, which itself hasn't been peer reviewed, is pretty slim stuff.
All we can do is sit here, eat our sandwiches, chewing loudly, and "shoot the shit" about how women have it so much tougher than men do... As girls, as teens, as young women, as older women, and now, we have scientific proof that elderly women got it bad too! And that ain't good!
Other people here correctly point out that there are more questions here than answers. Did the study control for age? Marital status? Death of a spouse? Income? Etc. We - know - noth-eeng!
All I know is that my grandpa killed himself. Just like that. He was on pain medication and it made him extra depressed. He took his life. Then, without grandpa around as a companion, grandma fell into a deep depression and died six months to the day after grandpa died.
Getting old sucks. Let's not turn it into a gender competition over for whom it sucks more. Okay?
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maybe...
...women grow up being showered with attention just for being there, and when they no longer get it, they're bummed. Men usually never get to experience the same level of interest from others, and so perhaps they have an easier time living without it in old age.
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From personal experience
I attribute increased female depression hormones. Maybe some more testosterone would help.
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Is this a mea culpa of some sort Carol?
And maybe in a culture that accords old women so little respect, elderly women have a hell of a reason to be bummed!
Especially when that culture includes "feminists" who snark on Britney Spears for being an "aging" starlet.
She's only 26 -- and she's too old for Carol's taste already!!
How's that supposed to sound to someone who just turned 52?
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Getting sloppy
meant to say "I attribute increased female depression to hormones."
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Once again, Carol has to have a penis fight over who is suffering more.
Though we know older men are more likely to kill themselves, it appears that elderly women have the edge on feeling like crap and living through it. According to a new study reported via WebMD and published in Archives of General Psychiatry, elderly women are more likely to suffer significant symptoms of depression than their male counterparts, though they are less likely to die while depressed.
Older men more likely to kill themselves: bad.
More women get depressed than men: worse!
Men more likely to die while depressed: um... offsetting penalties
Conclusion: people hate my vagina!
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Of course
After you've hectored all the men into an early grave, there's no one left to nag at. That's depressing. Didn't you know that the final revenge you can have on a control freak is to hand them total control?
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I guess I'm influenced by my parents' admonition when I was a girl....
Snap out of it! :-)
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Obviously
The result of a life spent inundated with social mores. Another BS double standard that benefits men and of course reflects the fact that men are in control. Men age and become refined, distinguished and if they can afford it get to romp in the gardens of younger women. Whereas women are seen (culturally) to have had their best years behind them pretty much from 30 on. Shame.
P.S. to be clear I'm talking about cultural perceptions.
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Of course increasing the dose of an antidepressant that is working is what the pharmaceutical and medical partnership would prefer.
Speaking of hot young women vs. old wrinkled women. Have you ever gotten gander at those female pharmaceutical reps? I am straight and they almost turn me on. Can you imagine what they will do for male doctors? Even when pharma reps are male, they are not chopped liver. Not quite UPS, but not bad.
For years the drug industry (the evil legal one!) has pandered, lied, manipulated tests, and mostly ignored long term negative side effects and the psychiatric docs have gone right along with them. After all, they couldn't actually have their patients return every month for medication monitoring if their patients realized that exercise, social life, a bit of sunlight in the winter, and a moderate carb (not high carb) low glycemic diet does wonders.
Also, about widowhood. Grief is not depression. It is perfectly natural to feel grieved when the kids move away or you lose a mate of many years or your old friends start to show up in the obituary column.
Please folks! Google SSRI medication and suicidal ideation and side effects. It is perfectly natural to get upset for instance when you gain 30 pounds due to the medication that is supposed to lift your depression.
Do you realize that the FDA does not require that drugs be effective but only that they meet a minimal standard of safety? That drug approval is very much rigged in the drug companies favor? That old SSRIs and other meds that you can get inexpensively now that they have gone generic are barely tweaked and then given a new name as an expensive drug for a new condition not previously prescribed for on label? That no sooner does a drug get approved than a drug company begins tweaking it in anticipation of it going generic?
If you want to lower medical costs, look at the way that drugs are prescribed when they are not needed, when older and effective medications still exist, when perfectly reasonable over-the-counter medications are available, when some great nutritional supplements exist (niacin, magnesium, and L-arginine all lower blood pressure when take consistently), when diet, exercise, massage, acupunture, or support groups would help significantly. But noooo! Big pharma must have its profits!
End of rant.