A cross sectional study on the prevalence of depression among 40-55-year-old women visiting tertiary care hospital in Karnataka

Background: A large proportion of women undergoing menopause experience various abnormal symptoms such as, vasomotor symptoms. the vasomotor symptoms include hot flashes and night sweats; they are also considered as predominant menopausal symptoms. Multiple studies have shown that the increased risk of depression in the menopausal age group. Objectives: To compare the depression among postmenopausal women and women who has not attained menopause in the age group of 40 to 55 years in women visiting OPD of tertiary care hospital. Methods: The present study is a cross sectional study, Assessment of Depression of women was done using Beck’s Depression Inventory, it is a validated instrument for measuring depression. This tool is a self-rated scale, where individuals rate their own symptoms of depression. Results: Data collected from 120 women in the age group of 40 to 55 years. Mean age of the participants in the present study were 47.46 ± 4.72 years.the present study majority of the women i.e. 82.7% of the participants had mild mood disturbance, 10.8% had mild depression, 5.7% had moderate depression and 0.8% had severe depression as measured by Beck’s Depression Inventory. 84.6% of postmenopausal women and 78.3% women who has not attained menopause had mild mood disturbance. 6.2% of premenopausal women and 10.2% of post-menopausal women had mild depression ,6.7% of the premenopausal women had mood changes, 9 % of post menopause women had moderate depression where as 2.4% of premenopausal and 2.5% of post-menopausal women had severe depression. The proportion of women with depression is slightly higher among postmenopausal women than women than the premenopausal women. Conclusion: The depressive symptoms were found to be higher among post-menopausal women compared to premenopausal women. The vasomotor symptoms (hot flashes/night sweats), had a significant association with depression. The women in perimenopausal age group need special attention and they should be screened for depression to diagnose and treat major depressive illness earlier. The treating physician should consider the mental health aspect of the patients.