The contraceptive pill & depression

Professor Jayashri Kulkarni from Australia’s Monash University’s School of Psychology, Psychiatry and Psychological Medicine conducted a study in March 2005 that compared depression symptom scores between users and non-users of combined oral contraceptives.
Results showed women using the Pill had an average depression rating scale score of 17.6, compared to 9.8 in the non-user group.
Serotonin, a neurotransmitter in the brain that improves mood and helps promote sleep and relaxation, has been identified as a factor in depression. People with clinical depression have lower levels of brain serotonin, and many anti-depressant medications work by inhibiting the degradation, and thereby maintaining a high level, of serotonin in the brain.
Progestin is a synthetic version of the female hormone progesterone and is used in conjunction with synthetic estrogen in the combined pill, and on its own in the mini-pill and Depo-Provera (three month hormone shot). Progestin has been shown to promote the lowering of brain serotonin levels by increasing the concentration of a brain enzyme that reduces serotonin and is known to worsen the effects in women who are already depressed.

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