Depression looks different in people depending on their gender, at least it does according to new research expanding criteria for the mood disorder, the Los Angeles Times reported.

A new study, published Wednesday in JAMA Psychiatry, suggested rage, risk-taking, substance abuse and workaholism should be considered symptoms of depression. With those factored in, there is no longer a difference in men and women who experience the condition.

Previous research showed women were 70 percent more likely to experience major depression in their lifetime. The new study said men are now just as likely, if not a little more.

"When it comes to depression in men, to some extent we have blinders on," said Dr. Andrew Leuchter, a psychiatrist who studies depression at UCLA. "We have not been asking about and taking into account a range of symptoms that may be gender-specific."

The new study helps many scientists with a perplexing statistic. While men were believed to be much less likely to experience major depression, they were four times more likely to commit suicide than women were. Health experts from the University of Michigan and Vanderbilt University assisted in testing men's diagnoses to get more accurate data.

The researchers added the new symptoms to the already accepted ones: sadness, loss in interest in pleasurable activities, guilt and feelings of worthlessness. They came up with two different measuring standards - one to be gender-neutral and one to favor the way the sickness behaves among men.

The research group surveyed more than 5,700 (41 percent men) American adults involved in a long-term mental-health study organized by Harvard Medical School.

"Everything we think we know about depression is a reflection of how we defined it to begin with," Leuchter said.

The researchers found a fundamental difference in the way men and women respond to depression. Women are more likely to acknowledge their feelings in an internalizing manner, whereas men will express it externally by taking risks, becoming easily irritable and trying to cancel the pain with drugs, alcohol and sex.

"These findings could lead to important changes in the way depression is conceptualized and measured," the study authors concluded.