Estrogen Replacement Therapy, Subsyndromal Depression, and Orthostatic Blood Pressure Regulation

Although estrogen replacement therapy (ERT) alleviates depressed moods in postmenopausal women, it is not known whether ERT is equally effective in reducing affective and somatic depressive complaints. One of the authors' goals in this study was to examine possible differences between women rec...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Behavioral medicine (Washington, D.C.) D.C.), 2003, Vol.29 (3), p.101-106
Main Authors: Canada, Stephanie A., Hofkamp, Michael, Gall, Eric P., Perlmuter, Lawrence C.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aged
Biological and medical sciences
Blood pressure
Control Groups
Depression
Depression (Psychology)
Depressive Disorder, Major - diagnosis
Depressive Disorder, Major - etiology
estrogen
Estrogen Replacement Therapy - adverse effects
Ethnic Groups
Female
Females
Graduate Students
Hormone replacement therapy
Humans
Hypotension, Orthostatic - diagnosis
Hypotension, Orthostatic - epidemiology
Hypotension, Orthostatic - etiology
Medical sciences
Menopause
Mental depression
Neuropharmacology
orthostatic blood pressure
Pharmacology. Drug treatments
Postmenopausal women
Postmenopause - psychology
Psychoanaleptics: cns stimulant, antidepressant agent, nootropic agent, mood stabilizer..., (alzheimer disease)
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychopharmacology
Rating Scales
Resistance (Psychology)
somatic
Somatoform Disorders - psychology
subsyndromal depression
Surveys and Questionnaires
USA
Women
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Although estrogen replacement therapy (ERT) alleviates depressed moods in postmenopausal women, it is not known whether ERT is equally effective in reducing affective and somatic depressive complaints. One of the authors' goals in this study was to examine possible differences between women receiving and not receiving ERT. The authors studied a group of postmenopausal women. Somatic symptoms in the ERT group were significantly lower than in the Non-ERT group. Affective scores were only marginally lower in the ERT group (p = .06). After controlling for affective depression, the advantage of ERT remained significant with respect to somatic levels, but control for somatic levels essentially eliminated the effects of ERT on affective depression values. Second, in response to orthostatic challenge, the change in systolic blood pressure was significantly smaller in the ERT group. Apparently ERT is associated with more effective blood pressure regulation. Thus there are several potential benefits of ERT, despite recent evidence finding several untoward effects of long-term treatment.
ISSN:0896-4289
1940-4026
DOI:10.1080/08964280309596062