[Psychiatry of women: an new field of research in mental health].

This paper presents the state of the art of our current knowledge in the field of female psychiatry. This domain of mental health studies the particularities of psychological distress in women. It is a new concept, and its creation is subtended by some clinical and epidemiological realities. The creation of this very interesting field of research has been promoted on the one hand because of the existence of certain female-specific psychiatric disorders (premenstrual syndrome, post-partum psychopathologies, pseudocyesis, Ferjol's syndrome and menopause-related disorders) and on the other hand because the vast majority of mental diseases may be expressing major gender-related variations (prevalence, natural history of disease, symptomatology, prognosis and treatment outcome). Research in female psychiatry has numerous goals. First of all, the sex-based differences in the prevalence of mental disorders (e.g., depression, schizophrenia, anxiety, anorexia nervosa, personality disorders) has to be understood (are they artefacts, or the expression of hormonal or genetic influence, or a consequence of social factors, or even the result of brain development?). Second, the specific nature of some of these diseases is under investigation (e.g., is postnatal depression a classical major depressive disorder or a puerperal-specific disease?). And third, treatments must be adapted accordingly. Indeed, the study of female psychiatry attempts the integration of the gender-effect in order to improve the treatment modalities.