FENS 2020: lack of female representation in neuropsychiatric research is harming

In research presented at the FENS Virtual Forum of Neuroscience (11–15 July), multiple researchers have presented their work into sex-specific differences in the mechanisms of illnesses and therefore responses to both illness and treatments. Although diversity in research is gaining attention, women were found to be under-represented in psychiatric research despite suffering twice as much from disorders including depression, anxiety and PTSD. A number of biological differences in the mechanisms of some disorders have been identified. For example, although stress alters neuron shape in both the male and female brain, the genes affected differed significantly. “Even when symptoms for disorders...