[Gender and mental health in a changing world]

It is well established that human psychological development, violence and sexual abuse, the experience of reproduction and parenting, as well as psychopathology and psychiatric morbidity are different for men and women, both in quality and quantity. In this chapter some of these differences, including disability and the use of services in the Spanish population are described and analysed. Whether there is a need for a new discipline to study psychiatric illness and psychiatric treatment from the point of view of gender is discussed. There has been a deep process of transformation of gender roles in our society. In our opinion this calls for new research efforts aimed at estimating the rates of prevalence and associated risk factors in men and women at present. The results of such research will probably lead to the formulation of new and more relevant hypotheses, and to the development of new research strategies and more valid and reliable measuring instruments.