Study uncovers a reason behind sex differences in mental illness

Researchers have long observed that men and women tend to experience mental illnesses at different rates, with women showing higher rates of mood and anxiety disorders, and men showing higher rates of antisocial personality disorder and substance abuse.

A new study, published online in September in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, may have uncovered an underlying reason: A tendency among women to internalize distress (by ruminating on negative thoughts, for instance) and a tendency among men to externalize their distress (through, for example, aggressive or coercive behavior), says the study's lead author Nicholas Eaton, a psychology doctoral candidate at the University of Minnesota.

Those of you who use the MBTI might have something to think about here: Is this a difference between Introverted and Extraverted Feeling?

See the entire article in the Nov. 2011 APA Monitor