[Gender as a determinant of mental health and its medicalization. SESPAS Report 2020]

Abstract

Women's worse mental health has been shown using both health survey and clinical-based data. Considering that the hypothesis about a greater biological vulnerability of women is inconsistent, unequal living conditions between men and women, together with hegemonic models of hegemonic masculinity and femininity emerge as explain factors of these gender inequalities in mental health. The article shows that gender inequalities in mental health, the intersection of different axes of inequality, and the existence of a possible process of medicalization of women's mental health, by which health professionals are labeling women more frequently as depressed and anxious given similar mental health status in men and women. Prescription of psychotropic drugs is also of greater intensity in women, given equal need. This reality, moreover, seems to be unequal depending on the age and socioeconomic level of the patients. In recent years, different experiences are being developed aimed at addressing the growing medicalization of mental health from a gender perspective. Given that the phenomenon of medicalization is complex, it is necessary to act and promote changes at political-structural, cultural and health care levels that ultimately reverse gender inequalities in societies and promote non gender-biased healthcare.

Keywords: España; Factores socioeconómicos; Gender; Género; Medicalización; Medicalization; Mental health; Salud mental; Socioeconomic factors; Spain.