Association Between Hormonal Birth Control, Substance Use, and Depression.

Sharlene D Newman

doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2022.772412

Abstract

ObjectiveThe current study examined the impact of the use of hormonal birth control, cannabis (CB), and alcohol on depression symptoms.Study DesignSurvey data from 3,320 college-aged women collected over a 2-year period. Depression symptoms were assessed using the PHQ-9.ResultsIndividuals taking hormonal birth control (N = 998; age = 19.1 ± 1.6 years) had lower overall depression scores than did those not taking birth control (N = 2,322; age = 19.1 ± 1.8 years) with 15.2% of those not taking hormonal birth control had depressive symptoms while 12.1% of those in the birth control group had depressive symptoms. Additionally, those taking hormonal birth control had higher scores on the alcohol and CB use assessment. A between-subjects ANOVA with depression score as the dependent variable found significant effects hormonal birth control use, CB and alcohol use, as well as a significant interaction between CB use and hormonal birth control use.ConclusionsWhile there are some limitations (e.g., the between subjects design makes it such that there may be uncontrolled differences between groups), the results suggest that hormonal birth control use may help to reduce depressive symptoms.ImplicationsMore studies examining the impact of hormonal birth control and substance use on depression are required. The results suggest a potential interaction between CB and hormonal birth control use on depression symptoms that is not observed for alcohol. This implies that alcohol and CB may be linked to depression via different mechanisms.

Highlights

The college-aged, emerging adult developmental stage is one of great change that coincides with widespread alterations in synaptic connectivity and white matter myelination, including in theBirth Control, Substance Use, and Depression prefrontal cortex [1]
The 998 participants who reported using some form of hormonal birth control used a variety of oral contraceptives including progestin only and combination estrogen/progestin pills
The results indicate that the Cannabis Use Disorders Identification Test-Revised (CUDIT) safe group shows that individuals using hormonal birth control (HBC) have lower depression scores than the non-HBC group, the hazard group showed the reverse with the HBC users having higher Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ)-9 scores; there was no significant difference for the disorder group

Summary

Introduction

The college-aged, emerging adult developmental stage is one of great change that coincides with widespread alterations in synaptic connectivity and white matter myelination, including in theBirth Control, Substance Use, and Depression prefrontal cortex [1]. The college-aged, emerging adult developmental stage is one of great change that coincides with widespread alterations in synaptic connectivity and white matter myelination, including in the. The emerging adult developmental stage is one in which individuals may experience their first episode of psychiatric disorders such as depression and anxiety with 30% of college students reporting having depressive symptoms [2]. Female substance users show an increase in sexual risk-taking [7]; and an increased risk of depression and anxiety [8, 9]. These sex differences in the effects of substance use and the incidence of depression are both thought to be influenced by sex hormones

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