Why is depression a factor with female inmates?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Depression is a very common mental illness among the incarcerated and is even more pronounced among the female offending population because this disorder tends to have higher prevalence rates among females in general. Furthermore, depression is a common symptom among drug abusers, so when the numerous problem variables are taken together, female offenders are very susceptible to bouts of depression and to the full array of mood disorders. Messina and Grella (2006) examined the background of female inmates using the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) scale to examine the link between childhood trauma and physical health problems (Centers for Disease Control, 2008). In the ACE study, it was found that a strong relationship exists between the cumulative number of events of childhood abuse and household dysfunction and multiple risk factors for the leading causes of death in adults, including chronic drug dependency and histories of attempted suicide and depression. The research by Messina and Grella (2006) found that female offenders were more likely to have childhood traumatic events. Problems with health, mental health, substance abuse, and criminal behavior were found to be exponentially higher among women with multiple adverse childhood events. As an example, among those with mental health prognoses, there was an increase in the proportion of women reporting use of psychotropics, previous mental health treatment, or previous suicide attempts that correlated with increased levels of childhood traumatic events.