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Using socioemotional selectivity theory as a framework, the study described in this article examined the extent to which social support from friends both within and outside of a retirement community was associated with depression. Although levels of social support from friends within the retirement community were quantitatively high, they failed to have a significant effect on depression. In contrast, social support from friends living elsewhere consistently predicted low levels of depression. Practice implications include the importance of maintaining friendship ties with people living elsewhere and of strengthening friendship ties within the retirement community.

The extent to which medical and mental health clinicians (n = 523) tend to diagnose depression differentially on the basis of the gender of their patients (n = 23,101) is assessed using independent measures of depression: (a) the clinician's diagnosis of clinically meaningful depression, and (b) standardized assessment of depressive disorder using the Diagnostic Interview Schedule (DIS). Among patients who met DIS criteria for depressive disorder, medical practitioners were significantly less likely to identify depression in men than in women. Among patients who did not meet DIS criteria for depressive disorder, mental health specialists were significantly more likely to identify depression in women than in men. These findings remained after adjustment for patient demographic and other clinically relevant factors, including depression severity.On the basis of strong and consistent evidence, women appear to have higher rates of depression than do men. Reported

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