Study links contraceptive pill to depression

Women who take the contraceptive pill are more likely to be treated for depression, according to a large study.

Researchers at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark studied one million women between the ages of 15 and 34 who used hormonal contraception and discovered they were more likely to be prescribed antidepressants than those who were on other forms of contraception.

Researchers found that women on the combined pill were 23% more likely to be prescribed antidepressants by their doctor, most commonly in the first six months after starting on the pill. Those on progestin-only pills (a synthetic form of the hormone progesterone ) were 34% more likely to either be prescribed antidepressants or diagnosed with depression, than those using non-hormonal methods.

The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Psychiatry, found that not only women taking pills but also those with implants, patches and intrauterine devices were affected.

Those most at risk were teenagers (young women aged between 15 and 19). Those taking combined pills were 80% more likely and those on progestin-only pills more than twice as likely to be prescribed an antidepressant than their peers who were not on the pill.

Read more: http://archpsyc.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2552796

http://www.nhs.uk/news/2016/09September/Pages/Women-taking-the-contraceptive-pill-more-likely-to-be-depressed.aspx

Image credit: http://metro.co.uk/2016/09/30/worrying-link-between-the-pill-and-depression-6160468/?platform=hootsuite

contraceptive pill Depression