Table 1. Hormone Levels and Depressive Symptoms.
Naturally cycling placebo users |
Oral contraceptive users |
Between-group effects |
||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Follicular phase | Luteal phase | Within-group effects (p) | Follicular phase | During treatment | Within-group effects (p) | Follicular phase (p) | Luteal phase/During treatment (p) | |
Estradiol (pmol/l)a | 167±99 | 436±277 | 0.002 | 243±175 | 50±18 | 0.001 | 0.13 | < 0.001 |
Progesterone (nmol/l) | 2.0±0.9 | 18.2±21.2 | 0.006 | 3.1±4.2 | 1.4±0.5 | 0.16 | 0.30 | 0.004 |
MADRS | 4.13±1.25 | 5.40±3.72 | 0.25 | 5.06±4.68 | 8.93±6.96 | 0.02 | 0.46 | 0.10 |
Hormone levels and symptom scores are presented as mean±SD, and the significance levels for the within- and between-group effects are given in p-values.
Measurement specificity restricted the lower limit of the estrogen levels to <40 pmol/l. Values indicated to be lower than this were therefore entered as 39 pmol/l.