ORIGINAL ARTICLE Gender Differences in Depressive Symptoms in Thai Individuals with Depressed Mood and/or Anhedonia: A Differential Item Functioning Approach Manit Srisurapanont 1 & Phunnapa Kittiratanapaiboon 2 & Narong Maneeton 1 & Thoranin Kongsuk 3 & Benchalak Maneeton 1 & Boonsiri Junsirimongkol 4 Published online: 16 November 2016 # Springer Science+Business Media New York 2016 Abstract This study used the item response theory-based log-likelihood-ratio technique for differential item functioning (IRT-LR DIF) to determine gender differences in seven add-on major depressive episode criteria in Thai people living in community. Of a population of 17,480 Thai people living in community, 322 men (3.79%) and 487 women (5.63%) currently were of depressed mood and/or anhedonia. Of seven symptoms, only cognitive deficit had a statistically significant DIF (G 2 of 7.3, df = 2, p = 0.007; Benjamini-Hochberg adjusted p = 0.049). The uniform DIF suggested that men had a significantly but marginally lower threshold value for endorsing cognitive deficit than women (threshold difference = -0.25). While the discrimination parameters of this cognitive symptom were greater than 2.0 (men = 2.10 and women = 2.29), their difference was as low as -0.19. Most depressed symp- toms have similar criterion functioning in both genders. However, Thai men may be more likely to have a cognitive deficit than their female counterparts. Keywords Criteria . Differential item functioning . Gender . Major depressive episode . Symptoms . Sex Several lines of evidence suggest differences between depressive features in men and women. Women with depression may be more sexually impaired, more vegetative, more depressed, Int J Ment Health Addiction (2017) 15:493–502 DOI 10.1007/s11469-016-9720-0 * Manit Srisurapanont manit.s@cmu.ac.th 1 Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand 2 Department of Mental Health, Ministry of Public Health, Nonthaburi, Thailand 3 Prasrimahabhodi Psychiatric Hospital, Ministry of Public Health, Ubonratchathani, Thailand 4 Somdet Chaopraya Institute of Psychiatry, Ministry of Public Health, Bangkok, Thailand