As the population ages, “grey divorces” among people over the age of 50 are on the rise, as are second marriages. But men and women are not necessarily affected in the same way by these breakups later in life, according to a new study by international researchers.
The scientists investigated the psychological impact of divorce, breakup, bereavement or a new relationship and the use of antidepressants. Published in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, the research reveals that women may have more difficulty in handling such an ordeal, even after starting a new relationship.
The researchers tracked the antidepressant use of over 228,000 Finnish people aged between 50 and 70, between 1996 and 2018, who had experienced divorce, separation, or the death of a partner, and some of whom had remarried or started new relationships.
In detail, over 85,000 participants experienced bereavement, more than 75,000 a divorce, and more than 68,000 a breakup; while over 53,000 started a new relationship within 2-3 years of this painful event.
The researchers point out that more men than women found a new partner after a bereavement or breakup, but that there were no obvious gender differences in re-partnering after a divorce.
Anti-depressant use increased by 5% in men and 7% in women in the six months preceding a divorce, then fell in the aftermath for both genders before stabilising after a year, although remaining higher than before the divorce.
Anti-depressant consumption increased twice as much in women as in men (6% vs 3%) in the four years preceding a breakup, and did not follow the same trajectory for both sexes following the event.
For men, use fell within a year to where it was 12 months before the breakup, then stabilised; while for women, use fell only slightly immediately after the breakup, before rising again from the first year onwards.
“The partial recovery and the continuous increase in antidepressant use appear to support the marital-resource model, which suggests that losing a partner may bring stressful changes in life circumstances (e.g. decreased household income, or loss of social support) that persist or accumulate over time,” the researchers stated.
Entering a new relationship changed the situation very little, since antidepressant use dropped slightly before returning to the level observed before finding a new partner.
“Among women, the greater increases in antidepressant use associated with union dissolution may relate to the fact that the costs on mental health fall more heavily on women than men,” the researchers added.
Finally, “the smaller declines in antidepressant use associated with re-partnering may be related to how marriage benefits men’s mental health to a greater extent than women’s, and older men are more likely than women to seek emotional support from re-partnering”, they noted.
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