Depression is a common psychiatric disease caused by various factors, manifesting with continuous low spirits, with its precise mechanism being unclear. Early life stress (ELS) is receiving more attention as a possible cause of depression. Many studies focused on the mechanisms underlying how ELS leads to changes in sex hormones, neurotransmitters, hypothalamic pituitary adrenocortical (HPA) axis function, and epigenetics. The adverse effects of ELS on adulthood are mainly dependent on the time window when stress occurs, sex and the developmental stage when evaluating the impacts. Therefore, with regard to the exact sex differences of adult depression, we found that ELS could lead to sex-differentiated depression through multiple mechanisms, including 5-HT, sex hormone, HPA axis, and epigenetics.

抑郁症是一种由多种因素引起的常见精神疾病，表现为持续情绪低落，其确切机制尚不清楚。早期生活压力 (ELS) 作为抑郁症的一个可能原因正受到更多关注。许多研究集中在 ELS 如何导致性激素、神经递质、下丘脑垂体肾上腺皮质 (HPA) 轴功能和表观遗传学变化的机制上。ELS对成年期的不利影响主要取决于压力发生的时间窗口、性别和评估影响时的发育阶段。因此，关于成人抑郁症的确切性别差异，我们发现ELS可能通过多种机制导致性别分化抑郁症，包括5-HT、性激素、HPA轴和表观遗传学。