Dad stays silent on depression: blame it on John Wayne
Older men often regard themselves as the “strong silent type”, don’t want to carry any “stigma” of depression, and are less likely then women to seek treatment, according to a new study by the University of California.
The study found that because older men tend not to endorse depressed mood or sadness they were often felt to be more reluctant to accept the diagnosis of depression and the treatment recommendations.
Older men, often described as ‘old school’ or the ‘John Wayne type’, were considered
difficult to diagnose and treat because they perceived the cultural meaning of depression to be in conflict with their own view of themselves as men.
One physician in the study reported that some older men “just do not think that tough guys go talk to psychologists or psychiatrists and fool around with that type of monkey business”. A depression care manager said that there was a greater tendency for men to express their depression in physical rather than emotional terms. “They will not say they feel sad or depressed – they will say they have a stomach ache.”
The study appears in the October edition of the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry with the findings rated as important in the public health area because of depression’s association with suicide in older adults. With men the suicide rate is 31.8 per 100,000 in men aged 65 and older compared with 4.1 per 100,000 in older women.
