Abstract
Objective:Climacteric syndrome, which is related to many symptoms, often causes discomfort in women. Non-pharmacologic treatment is one of the treatment options for affected individuals, and this syndrome can be cured with psychological treatments such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). The present study aimed to compare the efficacy of various CBT methods on the improvement of climacteric symptoms.Material and Methods:PubMed, Scopus, Cochrane, Medline, PsycINFO, and Google Scholar were searched for relevant articles published between January 1990 and August 2018. Data extraction and quality assessment were conducted by two authors.Results:A total of 15 articles including 910 women were entered. We divided the CBT methods into two categories, face-to-face (individual and group CBT) and indirect (self-help CBT) methods. Among the three CBT approaches, three articles covered individual CBT, nine articles carried out group CBT, and in five articles, the self-help approach was used. The climacteric symptoms that improved with CBT were categorized into three groups as vasomotor symptoms, psychological symptoms, and organic disorders. Generally, the face-to-face method played a key positive effect on symptom improvement, and the group CBT approach was more effective on psychological symptoms.Conclusion:Although the indirect method is more cost-effective, it has less impact than the face-to-face method; it is better to use face-to-face approaches to achieve better results, if possible. Further studies are required in this regard, particularly in the individual and self-help CBT approaches, to measure the impact of these approaches on more varied symptoms of menopause.
Highlights
Climacteric and menopause are closely related concepts; they do not denote to exactly the same thing
Considering the fact that apart from group therapy, other approaches have not been applied to psychological symptoms and owing to the good effect of individual and self-help cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) in depression and insomnia, group CBT cannot be absolutely chosen as the best approach [31,32]
Limited studies were conducted on individual and self-help CBT and most of them focused on hot flashes and night sweats (HF/NS) frequency and problem rating in each approach
Summary
Climacteric and menopause are closely related concepts; they do not denote to exactly the same thing. Climacteric is the process of aging in women, including three periods. The first stage is peri-menopause, occurring within one and eight years before the beginning of menopause. A series of gradual changes occur during this period. The second period is menopause, which is confirmed by having experienced a year of amenorrhea, and the postmenopausal stage, which is the third phase, begins when menopause is confirmed and lasts until old age [1]. From a practical point of view, the term menopause globally refers to the aging process of the ovary and includes any period of peri-menopausal and postmenopausal in women [2]. The climacteric period can be associated with symptoms in four different classifications: 1- vasomotor vegetative symptoms
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callMore From: Journal of the Turkish German Gynecological Association
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
