[Gynecological management of climacteric syndrome with psychiatric disorders].

Abstract

Purpose: To discriminate patients with severe mental disorders from those complaining of menopausal symptoms, psychological tests were performed on patients who visited the menopausal clinic. The effectiveness of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) in patients with slight mental disorders was also evaluated.

Subjects and methods: Patients with menopausal symptoms (n = 150, 41-59 yr. old) were interviewed by a psychiatrist (according to DSM-III-R) and classified as the climacteric syndrome group (C) and the mental disorder group (P). The patients were also evaluated by the Menopausal index (MI), Maudsley Personality Inventory (MPI) and Self-rating depression Scale (SDS). The patients with severe mental disorders were eliminated and the remaining patients with menopausal symptoms were treated with conjugated equine estrogen (0.625 mg/day) and medroxyprogesterone acetate (2.5mg/day) for 24 weeks.

Results: 1) Thirty six patients were diagnosed as P (24%) and seven of them were diagnosed as having major depression (4.7% of the all patients). 2) MPI-N (neurosis scale) in C was 16.2 +/- 10, and in P was 30.5 +/- 9.0, and SDS in C and P were 39.0 +/- 8.0, and 51.4 +/- 8.9, respectively. In both psychological test, P shows a significantly higher value than C (p < 0.01). 3) Ninety point six % of the patients responded. HRT was not effective in 63.2% of P, but when psychotropic drugs were combined, significant improvement (p < 0.05) was observed.

Conclusion: One fourth of the patients were suspected of having mental disorders in the menopausal clinic, and 5% of the patients needed the care of the psychiatrist. And the application of MPI and SDS was useful in helping the gynecologist to differentiate and classify the mental disorders to some extent. The applicability and effectiveness of HRT for patients with mild mental disorders were suggested.