Depressive mood symptoms associated with ovarian suppression

Abstract

Objective: To determine if sertraline is helpful in the management of depressive symptoms associated with ovarian suppression during GnRH agonist therapy as compared with a placebo-controlled group. Design: Double-blind placebo-controlled prospective study design. Setting: An obstetrics/gynecological office specializing in infertility in an academic environment. Patient(s): Premenstrual women with laparoscopically diagnosed endometriosis who required GnRH agonist therapy for treatment and did not have significant depressive or premenstrual mood symptoms at baseline. Intervention(s): Participants were randomly assigned to either the sertraline treatment group or to the placebo group for the 3-month duration of the GnRH agonist therapy. Main Outcome Measure(s): The 21-item Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HRSD), which is an instrument designed to assess depressive symptomatology. Result(s): A Hotellings T 2 test for repeated measure analysis indicated a statistically significant ( P<.05) between-group difference across time for the HRSD (T 2 = 13.3; F[3, 28] = 4.1; P=.02) with the sertraline treatment group manifesting significantly fewer depressive symptoms than the control group. Conclusion(s): The results indicate that sertraline is an effective option in the management of depressive mood symptoms associated with ovarian suppression during GnRH agonist therapy.