title: A population-based assessment of the relationship between menopausal and depressive symptoms in Portuguese women.
abstract: Empirical research on the relationship between menopause and depression has found contradictory results. Some authors suggest that depression is related to menopausal symptoms and not to menopausal status per se. Our aim is to study the relationship between menopausal status and depressive symptoms in a sample (n = 728) of middle-aged Portuguese women, taking into account the presence of menopausal symptoms. Depressive symptoms were measured with the Centre for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). There is a relatively high significant correlation between depressive and menopausal symptomatology (rs = .47). The increase of depressive symptomatology in perimenopause is still significant, even when adjusting for the presence of menopausal symptomatology.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Research in Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal. bgoncalves@fp.ul.pt
authors.forename: Bruno
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Gonçalves
authors.forename: Teresa
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Fagulha
authors.forename: Ana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ferreira
mesh_terms: D055812:Community-Based Participatory Research; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008593:Menopause / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000523:psychology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D011159:Population Surveillance; D011174:Portugal / Q000453:epidemiology; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012307:Risk Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires