Patricia Berglund

Cross-national associations between gender and mental disorders in the World Health Organization World Mental Health Surveys.

CONTEXTnGender differences in mental disorders, including more anxiety and mood disorders among women and more externalizing disorders among men, are found consistently in epidemiological surveys. The gender roles hypothesis suggests that these differences narrow as the roles of women and men become more equal.nnnOBJECTIVESnTo study time-space (cohort-country) variation in gender differences in lifetime DSM-IV mental disorders across cohorts in 15 countries in the World Health Organization World Mental Health Survey Initiative and to determine if this variation is significantly related to time-space variation in female gender role traditionality as measured by aggregate patterns of female education, employment, marital timing, and use of birth control.nnnDESIGNnFace-to-face household surveys.nnnSETTINGnAfrica, the Americas, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and the Pacific.nnnPARTICIPANTSnCommunity-dwelling adults (N = 72,933).nnnMAIN OUTCOME MEASURESnThe World Health Organization Composite International Diagnostic Interview assessed lifetime prevalence and age at onset of 18 DSM-IV anxiety, mood, externalizing, and substance disorders. Survival analyses estimated time-space variation in female to male odds ratios of these disorders across cohorts defined by the following age ranges: 18 to 34, 35 to 49, 50 to 64, and 65 years and older. Structural equation analysis examined predictive effects of variation in gender role traditionality on these odds ratios.nnnRESULTSnIn all cohorts and countries, women had more anxiety and mood disorders than men, and men had more externalizing and substance disorders than women. Although gender differences were generally consistent across cohorts, significant narrowing was found in recent cohorts for major depressive disorder and substance disorders. This narrowing was significantly related to temporal (major depressive disorder) and spatial (substance disorders) variation in gender role traditionality.nnnCONCLUSIONSnWhile gender differences in most lifetime mental disorders were fairly stable over the time-space units studied, substantial intercohort narrowing of differences in major depression was found to be related to changes in the traditionality of female gender roles. Additional research is needed to understand why this temporal narrowing was confined to major depression.

Middle-of-the-night hypnotic use in a large national health plan.

STUDY OBJECTIVESnAlthough difficulty maintaining sleep (DMS) is the most common nighttime insomnia symptom among US adults, many FDA-approved hypnotics have indications only for sleep onset, stipulating bedtime administration to offset residual sedation. Given the well-known self-medication tendencies of insomniacs, concern arises that maintenance insomniacs might be prone to self-administer their prescribed hypnotics middle-of-the-night (MOTN) after nocturnal awakenings, despite little efficacy-safety data supporting such use. However, no US data characterize the actual population prevalence or correlates of MOTN hypnotic use.nnnMETHODSnTelephone interviews assessed patterns of prescription hypnotic use in a national sample of 1,927 commercial health plan members (ages 18-64) receiving prescription hypnotics within 12 months of study. The Brief Insomnia Questionnaire assessed insomnia symptoms.nnnRESULTSn20.2% of respondents reported MOTN hypnotic use, including 9.0% who sometimes used twice-per-night (once at bedtime plus once MOTN) and another 11.2% who sometimes used MOTN, but never twice-per-night. The remaining 79.8% used exclusively at bedtime. Among exclusive MOTN users, only 14.0% used MOTN on the advice of their physician (52.6% of those seen by sleep medicine specialists and 42.6% by psychiatrists vs. 5.2% to 13.6% seen by other physicians). MOTN use predictors included DMS being the most bothersome sleep problem, long duration of hypnotic use, and low frequency of DMS.nnnCONCLUSIONSnOne-fifth of patients with prescription hypnotics used MOTN, only a minority on advice from their physicians. Since significant next-day cognitive and psychomotor impairment is documented with off-label MOTN hypnotic use, prescribing physicians should question patients about unsupervised MOTN dosing.