2023-06-26 08:16:06
by Giancarlo Cerveri
The probability of developing a mood disorder rises above all in the first two years of treatment and is particularly relevant in adolescence
I have read that women who have used the contraceptive pill have a higher risk of developing depression. True? Personally I happened to use it for almost a year but I had to suspend it because I felt bad, black mood, I was always crying. My partner no longer recognized me.
Answered by Giancarlo Cerveri, director of the Complex Operative Unit of Psychiatry ASST of Lodi (VAI AL FORUM)
The contraceptive pill is widely used in our country for planning choices relating to motherhood. Like all pharmacological interventions, although generally well tolerated, it can have undesirable effects in a certain number of cases and these could also include effects on mood. First, a small clarification: there are several contraceptive pills, the most common are called combined because they contain progesterone and estrogen. The effect of stable exposure to these two hormones, naturally produced by the female body in an alternating and phasic way during the menstrual cycle, reduces the risk of pregnancy to marginal levels. These two hormones also have specific receptors in the central nervous system, indicating that they also have a regulatory function on the mental functioning of women.
I study
This fact shouldn’t surprise us because from an evolutionary perspective, the phases of the cycle linked to fertility must necessarily lead to modifications of the body and behavior, in order to increase the probability of reaching the goal. Obviously these behavioral effects in the human species are greatly attenuated and mediated by cultural elements, but they are not completely cancelled. It is therefore not strange to accept that in some predisposed people these effects can produce a depressive picture. The clinical experience of many women taking the pill is sufficiently suggestive of the effects of this drug on mood. This observation was recently confirmed in research published in the journal
Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences
. This is an observational study conducted in the United Kingdom on over 200,000 women, in which researchers assessed the risk of developing depression in women taking the contraceptive pill.
Depression
The results confirmed that the risk of developing depression increases especially in the first two years of treatment. This risk is more relevant during adolescence, probably connected to a greater vulnerability in this phase of life to the risk of developing depressive pathology. In conclusion, I can tell you that depressive pathology is very widespread in the female gender (an average annual prevalence of around 10%). As for the birth control pill, not only effective but generally safe. it has been demonstrated that its use can increase the risk of developing a depressive syndrome, therefore it is necessary for the doctor to be aware of it and to be able to carry out a correct cost/benefit evaluation when starting the prescription for this type of contraceptive method.
June 26, 2023 (change June 26, 2023 | 08:12)
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