Mental health experts are warning that social changes in Western society may cause the number of men with depression to increase.

Shifts away from traditional male and female roles caused by social and economic changes will affect male self-esteem, an article in the British Journal of Psychiatry suggests.

"Women are almost twice as likely to develop major depressive disorder in their lifetime as men, but we believe this difference may well change in the coming decades," Dr. Boadie Dunlop from Emory University School of Medicine, one of the article's authors, said.

The number of manufacturing jobs and those requiring physical labor — traditionally male positions — is decreasing as they are moved to other countries or are lost to better technology, he said. At the same time, more women are attending college, which will result in more female heads of households, he noted.

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