Gender and mental health in Brazil: diagnoses of anxiety, depression, and other common mental disorders

Abstract

This article analyzes the persistence of gender bias in the distribution of diagnoses of anxiety, depression, and other common mental disorders in Brazil, from a critical feminist perspective. It aims to understand how gender norms, power relations, and the processes of medicalization of everyday distress contribute to the higher frequency of these diagnoses among women. Methodologically, it adopts a qualitative theoretical-analytical approach is adopted, based on a critical review of the feminist literature in mental health and on the analysis of data from population surveys, administrative records, and institutional documents. The results show that women present a higher prevalence of diagnoses of anxiety and depression, a pattern that persists over time and is not attributable to biological determinants. The analysis links these inequalities to the sexual division of labor, care overload, exposure to gender-based violence, and the psychiatrization of socially produced suffering. The article concludes by highlighting the relevance of collective care strategies—such as peer support groups—as experiences that challenge the predominant biomedical model, and by arguing that public mental health policies should be grounded in the social determinants of distress and be sensitive to gender issues.