The influence of hormone therapy upon cognitive style and depression in menopausal women

The paper is aimed at assessing co-occurrence of depression and menopause in women, including: 1) differences in occurrence and intensity of depressive symptoms in women subjected to hormone therapy and those not subjected; 2) dependencies between menopausal and depressive symptoms; 3) dependencies between cognitive style and depressive symptoms.
Material and methods: The research involved 60 menopausal women (30 women treated with hormones and 30 women without such treatment). The mean age of the examinees was 56.5. The frequency and intensity of menopausal symptoms were measured with the scale by Greene and the Women’s Health Questionnaire (WHQ) by M. Hunter. For measurement of depressive symptoms the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) was used, and mistakes in information processing were defined using the Cognitive Style Questionnaire by Wilkinson and Blackburn.
Results: There are differences in the occurrence and intensity of depressive symptoms between women subjected to hormone therapy and those who do not use this type of therapy. More depressive symptoms and more intense ones are observed in women with no hormone therapy. In their case depression is linked to the way they perceive and evaluate themselves and their envisaged future.
Conclusions: The research results point explicitly to the legitimacy of using hormone therapy, which reduces menopausal symptoms and thus influences positive perception of oneself and the future, and simultaneously protects women from depression.