Depressive mood symptoms associated with ovarian suppression

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.