Major Depressive Episode and Perimenopause

Purpose: To assess the clinical manifestations of perimenopause linked to depression. Introduction: It is well known that major depressive episode occurs more frequently in women addressing medical consultation for symptoms regarding the perimenopause. This is because menopause comes with a high risk of affective disorders. Mood disturbances are present in about 50% of the patients addressing the gynaecologist. Material and Methods: 80 women, aged 45 to 55 years, were divided into two groups: one consisting of patients diagnosed with major depressive episode from the District General Hospital of Huedin and the 2nd Psychiatric Clinic, Cluj-Napoca and the other of healthy women. The psychometric instruments used were Hamilton Depression Rating Scale, the Perz list of menopausal symptoms and Sloan scale for frequency and severity of hot flashes. Psychiatric symptoms of menopause and those of major depressive episode can be taken one for the other. To prevent that, we focused only on somatic vasomotor symptoms. The assessments were carried out at set intervals of time. The data was statistical analyzed. Results and Discussion: The given results indicate that depression in menopause is well associated with the frequency of hot flashes (r = 0.722; p = .000), the severity of hot flashes (r = 0.769; p = .000), the frequency of menopausal vasomotor symptoms (r = 0.721; p = .000), the severity of menopausal vasomotor symptoms (r = 0.754; p = .000) and with the premenstrual dysphoric syndrome (r = 0.795; p = .000). Another association was noted between the premenstrual dysphoric syndrome and the frequency of the vasomotor symptoms (r = 0.672; p = .000) and with the severity of vasomotor symptoms (r = 0.673; p = .000) as well. Conclusion: The severity of the depression may be influenced by the severity and frequency of menopausal symptoms and by the presence of the premenstrual dysphoric syndrome. The risk of major depressive episode may increase during perimenopause.