The study was a long-term piece of research focusing on anti-depressant use, before and after relationship breakdown. It was published in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health.
Researchers looked at the use of anti-depressant medication by men and women before, during and after different types of separation. This included death of a partner, divorce and non-marital separation (i.e. cohabiting couples deciding to split up). They also looked at what happened when individuals started a new relationship with someone else.
What they found was that women tended to use antidepressants more than men, following a break-up or divorce. It was also discovered that use of medication reduced less in women than in men after starting a new relationship.
Niina Metsä-Simola, co-author of the study and lecturer at the University of Helsinki, explained what these findings suggest:
"Our findings suggest that the adverse mental health effects of divorce fall more heavily on women whereas the beneficial mental health effects of re-partnering are weaker among them,"
She also suggested that the results of the study could point towards women being more likely to seek professional help for mental health problems than men.
A breakdown of the findings
Researchers tracked the patterns of anti-depressant use among over 228,000 people in Finland in the 50-70 age group, focusing on people who had gone through separation, divorce or bereavement.
They found that:
- For the 85,000 people who were bereaved, both women and men increased their use of anti-depressants in the 3 months before and after their partner died. This steep increase was 5.5% in men and 7% in women.
- For the 75,000 people who divorced, anti-depressant use spiked by 5% in men and 7% in women in the 6 months before divorce.
- But women experiencing separation were also found to have increased their intake by around 6% in the 4 years before divorce, compared to a 3% increase for men.
Researchers also discussed the reasons why anti-depressant use after divorce fell less for women than for men, and the impact of starting a new relationship on both men and women:
“The greater increases in [antidepressant] use associated with union dissolution among women in our study may indeed relate to the fact that the costs of union dissolution on mental health fall more heavily on women than men,”
“The smaller declines in [antidepressant] use associated with re-partnering in women than in men may be related to the explanations that marriage benefits men’s mental health to a greater extent than women’s, and older men are more likely than women to seek emotional support from re-partnering.
“In addition, women may take greater responsibilities to manage interpersonal relationships between the blended families, such as those with the partner’s children, which could undermine their mental health,”
If you need legal advice you can trust on divorce, separation, cohabitation or any other family matter, contact Wirral divorce solicitors Tracey Miller Family Law for a free initial consultation by calling 0151 515 3036.