Social defeat stress induces similarities in transcriptional patterns in female California mice compared to transcriptional patterns observed in women with MDD (A); one transcript similarly affected in both data sets is Rgs2. No similarities in DEGs were observed in stressed male California mice and men with MDD (B). Stress reduces Rgs2 average expression in a sex-specific manner (C). Rgs2 expression is correlated to social avoidance behavior in female (D) but not male (E) California mice. *planned comparison p<0.05 v. control. Group N’s: males/control: 8, male/stress: 7, female/control: 8, female/stress: 8, women/MDD: 13, women/control: 9, men/MDD: 13, men/control: 13.