Treatment can alleviate the symptoms in over 80 percent of the cases. Yet, because it often goes unrecognized, depression continues to cause unnecessary suffering Women are disproportionately affected by depression, experiencing it at roughly twice the rate of men.
Research continues to explore how the illness affects women.
At the same time, it is important to increase women's awareness of what is already known about depression, so that they seek early and appropriate treatment. That is the purpose of this material To grasp the specifics of depression in women, it is essential to have a broad understanding of the illness itself. To this end, this material presents an overview of depression as a pervasive and impairing illness that affects women and men in similar fashion. Episodes of the illness can occur once, twice, or several times in a lifetime. In dysthymia , the same symptoms are present though milder, but lasting at least two years.