“Males Don’t Wanna Bring Anything Up To Their Doctor”: Men’s Discourses of Depression
Abstract
Men experiencing depression may present with externalizing behaviors including avoidance, getting angry, or finding distractions rather than seeking help. General practitioners report that depression is harder to diagnose in men than in women. Research has not typically focused on men’s accounts of depression; thus, the current study uses an exploratory design to better understand men’s subjectivities of depression. A thematic framework informed the analysis of interviews with 10 men who had experienced high levels of depressive symptoms at least once within the prior 5 years, with two overarching discourses of depression discussed. The first relates to links between depression and health, including comorbid illnesses. The second relates to social contexts in which depression is experienced. These findings extend upon previous research suggesting medical practitioners have difficulty with competing biomedical and social discourses of depression, highlighting the importance of continuing to improve understandings of men’s depression discourses.
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Several studies have explained the underdiagnosis of depression in men by the high presence of externalizing symptoms and lack of help-seeking followed by masculinity, which makes depression more difficult to diagnose in men.
“Several studies have explained this fact by the high presence of externalizing symptoms (e.g. avoidance, angriness) as well as the lack of help-seeking followed by masculinity, which makes depression more difficult to be diagnosed in men. 93”
From Factors associated with gender and sex differences in anxiety prevalence and comorbidity: A systematic review (2022) · cites this paper as [93]
Older people with long-term conditions may normalize their depression, or view their long-term physical condition(s) as a 'justifiable' cause of low mood.
“Older people with LTCs may normalize their depression, or view their long-term physical condition(s) as a ‘justifiable’ cause of low mood [22–24].”
From Can support workers from AgeUK deliver an intervention to support older people with anxiety and depression? A qualitative evaluation (2019) · cites this paper as [22]
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Scholz, B., Crabb, S., & Wittert, G. A.
- Affiliations
- University of Canberra (AU)
- The University of Adelaide (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Scholz, Brett
- Venue
- Qualitative Health Research
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2016-07-09
- Volume
- 27
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 727-737
- ISSN
- 1049-7323 (ISSN-L)
- 1552-7557
- OpenAlex
- W2320311383
- Cited by
- 37
- References
- 39
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 6 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 2
- FWCI
- 8.30
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Qualitative Health Research (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Adelaide Research & Scholarship (AR&S) (University of Adelaide) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender Roles and Identity Studies
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health Treatment and Access
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychology and Mental Health
- Keywords
- help-seeking, helplessness, externalizing problems, comorbidities, general practitioners, gender and mental health, patient subjectivity
- MeSH terms
- Help-Seeking Behavior, Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Attitude to Health, Depressive Disorder, Humans, Male, Men, Middle Aged, Health Behavior, Young Adult, Masculinity
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