Stress, it’s a Girl Thing

Women are more likely to suffer from depression and stress than men.

Women are more likely to suffer from depression and stress than men. New research, done on rats, finds females are more sensitive to low levels of an important stress hormone and less able to adapt to high levels of it than males. Since rats do have some of the same neural systems we do, the rat research could have implications for humans, researchers at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia say. The study focused on corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF), a hormone released in the brain in responses to stress. CRF is a neurotransmitter, meaning it helps communicate signals between brain cells. Some neurons ‘send out’ the CRF signal, while others contain receptors to receive it. In female rats, neurons had receptors for CRF that bound more tightly to the hormone than in male rats, and so were more responsive to CRF. Also, after exposure to stress, male rats had an adaptive response in their brain cells. Their cells reduced the number of CRF receptors, and became less responsive to the hormone. In female rats, this adaptation did not occur.