Study: Depression risks of menopause overstated
For years, menopause and depression have been closely linked. But now a new paper in The Lancet disputes the commonly held notion that menopause consistently raises risk for mental health problems.
Hormonal fluctuations, as any woman who has gotten their period can attest, can affect one’s mood and well-being. Combine that with midlife stressors, like raising teenage children and caring for aging parents, and researchers claimed to see a rise in depression among women in menopause. But that notion is really an overstatement, says Lydia Brown, a psychologist in Melbourne, who co-authored the new study.
“I assumed that menopause really does lead to quite a substantial, increased risk of depression,” Brown said. “You have all these factors, social, psychological, and hormonal, that are all at play at the one time, and together, that could increase the risk of depression.”
It’s not the hot flashes
But after reviewing a dozen studies of menopausal women who reported depressive symptoms or major depressive order, the researchers found no compelling evidence that menopause caused a universal increased risk for either condition. To reach that conclusion, they focused only on prospective studies, which looked at groups of women over time.
They also tried to distinguish what women actually meant when they said they suffered from depression.
Researchers found that many of those who became depressed were women who’d already suffered with depression or other mental health issues previously or who were dealing with specific life events. One study, for instance, found that women who suffered frequent “hot flashes” and recent stressful life events had an increased risk of depression, whereas if they hadn’t had a stressful life event, their risk of depression was not elevated, Brown said.
Researchers also found some studies described menopausal women as suffering from depression yet they only had depressive symptoms, a lower level of depression than a full-blown “mental health disorder,” which is a more severe and enduring condition and one that is typically diagnosed by a clinician, Brown said.
“Some studies did find a bit of an increase of risk of depression, some didn’t, and others found it was more about risk factors. It wasn’t that all women are universally and uniformly at risk of depression,” Brown said. “We’re not saying it’s not an issue. But we are saying it’s a lot more nuanced than that.”
Not every menopausal woman experiences depression
The message of the paper is that we don’t want women to panic, because they should understand that depression is not a universal problem associated with the menopause transition. It’s a subgroup problem, said Hadine Joffe, interim chair of the department of psychiatry and executive director of the Connors Center for Women’s Health at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She is also a co-author on the paper.