Abstract

CALVOSO, Genilda Garcia; CALVOSO JUNIOR, Roberto; REIS, Alberto Olavo Advíncula  and  ALDRIGHI, José Mendes. Depressive symptoms prevalence in the perimenopause. Rev. bras. crescimento desenvolv. hum. [online]. 2008, vol.18, n.3, pp. 339-345. ISSN 0104-1282.

OBJECTIVE: a systematic review of studies that investigated the prevalence of depressive symptoms in perimenopausal women. Method: The research was conducted in MEDLINE and EMBASE databases. Original transversal studies in from 1996 to 2006 with adult populations were enclosed (age between 40 and 55 years old) and demonstrated prevalence of depressive symptoms in the perimenopause in the following languages: English, French and Portuguese. The studies selection was conducted by two independent evaluators. The inclusion criteria were studies which fulfilled the following methodological criteria: epidemiological characteristics, perimenopause definitions and valid instruments to evaluate depressive symptoms. RESULTS: After the evaluation of 1.345 articles, 1099 were excluded since they did not satisfy the criteria of inclusion, remaining only five articles with a population of 11.020 women with ages between 40 and 60 years and, therefore, part of the studied sample enclosed in perimenopause. This study revealed a prevalence of depressive symptoms in perimenopause, which varied between 19% and 73%. CONCLUSION: The present systematic review showed substantial variation in the prevalence of depressive symptoms in perimenopause; in addition, it was not possible to characterize if the depressive symptoms in perimenopause were exclusively due to hormonal fluctuations in this stage life or if related to previous preceding moments of depression.

Keywords : Menopause; menopausal transition; perimenopause; depressive symptoms; prevalence; literature systematic review.

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