Moderate or severe depression is uncommon in women seeking infertility therapy according to the beck depression inventory.
OBJECTIVE
To determine what percentage of infertility patients have depression.


METHODS
The Beck Depression Inventory test was given to new infertility patients on a voluntary basis.


RESULTS
There were no women with moderate or severe depression. In fact only 10% (3/30) scored mild depression. For those women without or with minimal depression 37% (10/27) conceived on their first cycle vs none (0/3) of those with mild depression.


CONCLUSIONS
The numbers with mild depression were too small to make valid conclusions. However, this group had a significantly longer length of infertility. Thus even if a more extensive study shows similar data it may well be that the length of infertility causes only mild depression rather than that depression leads to infertility. However the possibility still exists that even mild depression may to some degree impair success with infertility therapy.
Brasile
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The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School at Camden, Cooper Hospital/University Medical Center, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Division of Reproductive Endocrinology & Infertility, Camden, NJ, USA.
Katsoff
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B
Check
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JH
D000328:Adult; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D005307:Fertilization in Vitro / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007247:Infertility, Female / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D010865:Pilot Projects; D012720:Severity of Illness Index