Male Depression and Therapy

Dear Colleagues,

It is my great pleasure to invite you to contribute an article to the Special Issue on male depression and therapy. This Special Issue will feature original research papers,  communications, and review articles. The journal Behavioral Sciences has no restrictions on the length of manuscripts, provided that the text is concise and comprehensive.

Being born male or female is one of the most distinguishing characteristics in our society and shapes how a human being is perceived, interacted with, and expected to behave. Manhood, however, has been identified as a precarious state requiring continual social proof and validation. This leads to the fact that men express psychological distress in a dissimilar way and are reluctant to seek help. The distinct biology of men compared to women, with stress physiological systems showing higher responses to psychosocial stress in men, is an additional factor that warrants consideration.

A growing field of research is concerned with the identification of differing phenotypes of depressive syndromes and disorders in men. Although for men only half the prevalence rate for depressive disorders as compared to women is observed, a two-fold higher prevalence rate of alcohol use disorders and an up to four-fold increased rate for completed suicide in men are reported. A history of depression is considered to be one of the main risk factors for both alcohol use disorders and completed suicide. Also of interest is the finding that men with a high adherence to traditional male role norms are twice as likely to die by suicide as men with a low adherence to traditional male role norms. Therefore, more and more researchers are advocating the perspective that there might exist male-typical phenotypes of depression not captured by current diagnostic criteria, suggesting a male depression related to adherence to traditional male role norms and characterized by externalizing symptomatology.

This Special Issue is therefore dedicated to men's mental health. It aims to further elucidate male-specific phenotypes of mental disorders, their relationship with gender role socialization and adherence to traditional male role norms, and the experience of gender role conflict. This involves also the aspect of help-seeking and communicating psychological distress. Likewise, contributions to the pathophysiology of depressive and associated disorders with a focus on sex differences and the unique characteristics of male patients are of interest. With regard to the advancement of personalized medicine, male-specific or male-adjusted psychotherapeutic or pharmacological therapy approaches for mental disorders will be covered.

Dr. Andreas Walther
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the Special Issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Behavioral Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.