Gender-specific associations between types of childhood maltreatment and major depressive disorder: A matched case-control study

Abstract

Introduction: Major depressive disorder (MDD) has been found to be nearly twice as prevalent in females as in males. One hypothesis proposed that abused females were particularly prone to MDD. We aim to examine the sex-specific associations between various types of childhood trauma and MDD.

Methods: In this study, 290 outpatients diagnosed with MDD were recruited from Beijing Anding Hospital, and 290 healthy volunteers were recruited from neighborhoods nearby the hospital, with sex, age, and family history matched. Childhood Trauma Questionnaire-Short Form (CTQ-SF) developed by Bernstein et al. was used to assess the severity of five different types of childhood abuse and neglect. McNemar's test and conditional logistic regression models with potential confounders (i.e., marital status, educational level, and body mass index) controlled were used to explore the sex-specific associations between different types of childhood maltreatment and MDD.

Results: In the full sample, patients with MDD showed a significant higher rate of any childhood maltreatment (i.e., emotional abuse, sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional neglect, and physical neglect). Among females, all types of childhood abuse were statistically significant. For males, significant differences were only found in emotional abuse and in emotional neglect.

Conclusion: It would appear that MDD in the outpatients is associated with any type of childhood trauma in women and emotional abuse or neglect in men.

Keywords: abuse; childhood maltreatment; gender; major depressive disorder.