Woman Mental Health - Midlife

Abstract

Woman’s mental health, is an important issue and easily one of the most neglected domains, especially so for a woman in her middle age full of physiological and psychological turmoil. Mental health problems occur in higher frequency in women in general. Depression is more common in women as compared to men, women are twice as likely to experience anxiety as men and about 60 % of persons suffering from an OCD or a phobia are women. The greater gender predisposition necessitates an in-depth analysis of the biological and environmental factors of women which cause them to be more predisposed to mental illnesses. A recent report on Women of Tomorrow, reported women in India to be the most stressed female population of the world. Overall, the women of the developing nations were found to be more stressed than their sisters in the developed world. This led us to think about the cultural and environmental influences on the disorders, along with attitudes and perceptions of the society in the mental make-up of a woman. The contributing factors discussed in this article need extensive research to help modulate the implicated factors and in turn amount to primordial prevention. This article emphasizes the priorities to be studied in the context of a woman’s mental health, explores deeper issues and interrelationship of multi factorial determinants.