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 T² test for repeated measure analysis indicated a statistically significant (P < .05) between-group difference across time for the HRSD (T² = 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. (C) 2000 by American Society for Reproductive Medicine.