Sex differences in the age of onset of affective disorders

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Studies of sex differences in first admission age for inpatients in Missouri public psychiatric hospitals were examined for the incidence of major affective illness and dysthymia. Patients diagnosed as schizophrenic were also studied to check for diagnostic comparability. Those males diagnosed as having major affective illness were admitted 3.82 years earlier than females; the differential held up regardless of fifth-digit coding for psychosis. Males diagnosed as dysthymic were admitted 0.98 years earlier than females. Male schizophrenic patients were admitted an average of 7.75 years earlier than females, and the distribution was similar to that reported in a variety of cross-cultural studies.