By Cara Murez HealthDay Reporter
(HealthDay)
FRIDAY, Dec. 23, 2022 (HealthDay News) — Depression may be tricky to detect in some people, and Black women may exhibit different symptoms, resulting in missed care, researchers say.
Black women report sleep disturbances, self-criticism and irritability more often than the stereotypical low mood, in line with a recent study.
In consequence, standard screening tools may underdiagnose depression in Black women, the study authors said.
“Based on our findings, it’s possible that health care providers may miss depression symptoms in Black women, leading to underdiagnosis and undertreatment,” said lead writer Nicole Perez. She’s a psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner and postdoctoral associate at Latest York University Rory Meyers College of Nursing in Latest York City.
On the whole, depression symptoms are low mood, lack of interest in activities, changes in appetite or sleep, and feelings of hopelessness or worthlessness. But greater than 1,500 possible mixtures of symptoms exist that meet criteria for a depressive disorder, in line with the study.
Research on depression has primarily been conducted in white people, increasing the probabilities that it is going to be missed amongst racial and ethnic minority populations, the authors noted.
For this study, researchers analyzed data from 227 Black women who were screened for depression. Along with a category called somatic symptoms that features fatigue, insomnia and decreased libido, researchers found that Black women with depression were more more likely to be self-critical, irritable and to have an inability to experience pleasure.
The outcomes can’t be generalized to all Black women and there’s a necessity for screening tools that account for these variations, researchers said.
“My hope is that these findings contribute to the growing dialogue of how depression can look different from individual to individual and lift awareness of the necessity for more research in historically understudied and minoritized populations, in order that we are able to higher discover symptoms and reduce missed care and health disparities,” Perez said in an NYU news release.
The research was supported by the U.S. National Institutes of Health. The findings were published in Nursing Research.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on depression.
SOURCE: Latest York University, news release, Dec. 13, 2022
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