Women are more likely to use antidepressants after a relationship break-up compared to men later in life, researchers have found.
The observational study, funded by the European Research Council and Academy of Finland, looked at 228,644 Finnish residents aged 50 to 70 between 1996 and 2018, all of whom had experienced a relationship breakdown, divorce or bereavement between 2000 and 2014.
Of the group, 33% were divorced and 30% broke up with their partner and moved out, while 37% died after their partner’s death.
The study, led by Prof. Yaoyue Hu of Chongqing Medical University, found that women experiencing a breakup significantly increased their use of antidepressants in the four years before the event compared to men, with 6% taking antidepressants compared to 3.2% men.
The study, published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, also found that antidepressant use increased for both men and women in the six months leading up to divorce, by 5% in men and 7% in women. The use stabilized after one year, although for both it remained higher than before the divorce.
The researchers said the patterns observed in relation to antidepressant use may indicate that women find it more difficult to adjust emotionally to divorce or a relationship breakdown in later life compared to men.
Other factors that can be attributed to the excessive use of antidepressants may be gender differences in family roles, responsibilities and economic status.
The study also found that after death or a relationship break-up, more men worked together again than women, while there was no gender difference with those who divorced.
“The bigger increases in [antidepressant] use associated with union dissolution among women in our study may indeed be related to the fact that the mental health costs of union dissolution fall more heavily on women than men,” the study said.
The researchers added: “The smaller the drops in [antidepressant] use associated with repartnering 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 require emotional support from repartnering search.”
The study found that gray divorce – at the age of 50 and over – is increasing in high-income countries due to aging populations.
Gavin Scott, family law partner at UK law firm Freeths, said the figures were “unsurprising”.
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He said: “In most divorces it is still the case that wives are in a weaker financial position than their husbands, having stepped back to develop their career to be the primary carer of the children.
“Facing the uncertainty of their financial position after a divorce can be a huge mental weight, and adding to the anticipation of divorce, which can be an extremely distressing process, no wonder the use of antidepressants is on the rise.
“We often see marriages that have broken down, but the parties remain together in very unpleasant atmospheres, which only adds to the strain on the mental health as well as the emotional well-being of children in that situation.”
