Women entering menopause are nearly twice as likely to develop depression as are women the same age who are not yet making the transition to menopause, reported Dr. Lee S. Cohen and his associates in the Harvard Study of Moods and Cycles.
A cross-sectional sample of 460 women, aged 36 to 45 years, were prospectively followed every 6 months for several years. Changes in menstrual cycle length and menstrual flow amount and duration were tracked, and symptoms were assessed, said Dr. Cohen and his associates at Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Brigham and Women's Hospital, all of Boston.
None of the women had a history of major depression. A total of 134 were still premenopausal at the end of the last follow-up period, which occurred between 59 and 92 months after study enrollment. The remaining 326 women had entered menopause during that interval.
The rate of new-onset major depression was 16.6% in the menopausal women, compared with 9.5% in those who had not yet entered menopause, after the data had been adjusted to account for age at study enrollment and history of negative life events. “To our knowledge, this prospective documentation of increased risk for depression among women without a history of depression is unique,” the investigators said (Arch. Gen. Psychiatry 2006;63:385–90).