The Manitoba Project: a re-examination of the link between menopause and depression

Abstract

This paper re-examines the association between menopause and depression using data from a study in which 477 women were interviewed 6 times over a 3-year period. Menopause is examined as one of a series of factors which may increase the risk of depression for women in middle age, such as children leaving home, the death and illness of family members, the stresses of daily living, health and the onset of chronic disease. Rather than hormonal changes, it seems to be her health coupled with the shifts and stresses of family life in a woman's menopausal years which may trigger her depression.