Health Link Page

Mental Illness:

• Depression afflicts twice as many women as men. Young women are most prone. (National Institute of Mental Health. Depression: What Every Woman Should Know, December 1994.)
• A recent survey of adolescent girls revealed that almost 30% of them reported suicidal thoughts. (The Commonwealth Fund. The Commonwealth Fund Survey on the Health of Adolescent Girls, September 1997.)
• Despite depression’s disproportionate impact on women, few if any of the nation’s largest managed care organizations have gender-specific guidelines for the treatment of depression. (Monica Oss et al. Managed Care Approaches and Models for the Treatment and Management of Depression: Specific Issues for Women. Prepared for presentation at the Jacobs Institute of Women’s Health Symposium "Managed Care and Women’s Mental Health: A Focus on Depression," December 5, 1997, Washington, DC. Forthcoming in Women’s Health Issues 8(5); Sept./Oct. 1998.)
• Panic disorder, in which feelings of terror strike suddenly and repeatedly without warning, strikes between 3 to 6 million Americans. It is twice as common in women as in men. (National Institute of Mental Health. Anxiety Disorders, 1994.)
• Alzheimer's Association
• Depression and Related Affective Disorders Association
• National Alliance for the Mentally Ill
• National Institute for Mental Health, Public Inquiries Section
• U.S. Public Health Service's Office on Women's Health
• National Mental Health Association
• Internet Mental Health Home Page
• National Women's Health Resource Center
• American Psychiatric Association
• American Psychological Association
• Anxiety Disorders Association of America

Eating Disorders:

• Eating disorders, including anorexia and bulimia, are about 10 times as common in women as in men. (National Institute of Mental Health. Eating Disorders, 1993.)
• Anorexia, in which a person starves oneself to control their weight, leads to death in one in ten cases, killing approximately 1,000 adolescent girls per year. (National Institute of Mental Health. Eating Disorders, 1993.)
• Harvard Eating Disorders Center
• National Institute for Mental Health, Public Inquiries Section
• American Anorexia Bulimia Association
• Anorexia Nervosa and Related Eating Disorders
• Eating Disorders Awareness and Prevention
• American Dietetic Association
• Shapeup America

Sexually Transmitted Diseases

• More than 12 million new cases of STDs (other than AIDS) are diagnosed each year in the United States. (National Center for HIV, STD & TB Prevention Facts. November 1996.)
• Women bear a disproportionate burden of STD-related complications, including pelvic inflammatory disease, infertility, potentially fatal ectopic pregnancies, and cancer of the reproductive tract. (National Center for HIV, STD & TB Prevention Facts. November 1996.)
• Chlamydia is currently the most common sexually transmitted disease in the U.S. 50% of infections in women show no symptoms. Left untreated in women, it can cause pelvic inflammatory disease which is associated with ectopic pregnancy and even sterility. (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Chlamydial Infection, June 1992.)
• American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National STD Hotline
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National AIDS Hotline
• Planned Parenthood Federation of America
• Association of Reproductive Health Professionals
• American Social Health Association