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A study analyzing data on over 1 million women has found an association between hormonal birth control and use/prescription of antidepressants:
"Today in vindication," wrote a woman on Twitter on Tuesday, summarizing the way many have received a striking new study [DOI: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2016.2387] [DX] that found those who use birth control — especially teenage girls — may be at a significantly higher risk of experiencing depression. The research, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, has been heralded as groundbreaking for its depth and breadth, even if it seems to only confirm what some women say they've been feeling for years — that their hormonal contraceptives make them sad.
Women who used the combined birth control pill, a mix of estrogen and progestin, were 23 percent more likely to be prescribed anti-depressants than nonusers, and progestin-only pills raised the likelihood by 34 percent. With the patch, antidepressant use doubled; risk increased by 60 percent for vaginal rings and 40 percent for hormonal IUDs. And for teens age 15 to 19 taking combined oral contraceptives, the use of anti-depressants spiked 80 percent. Although those percentages may seem shocking, the absolute change is a small but significant spike. Among women who did not use hormonal birth control, an average of 1.7 out of 100 began taking anti-depressants in a given year. That rate increased to 2.2 out of 100 if the women took birth control.
It's the first study to conclude there might be a link between birth control and depression, author Øjvind Lidegaard told The Washington Post. Mood swings are often listed as a known side effect, but not clinical depression.
Also at The Guardian and CBC.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by fraxinus-tree on Thursday October 06 2016, @10:29AM
Isn't it backwards? Women with depression symptoms could be more likely to use hormonal birth control.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 06 2016, @10:47AM
Isn't hormonal birth control generally used while in relationships? Perhaps the women are just discovering what it's like to be in a relationship with a man.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday October 06 2016, @11:18AM
It could be worse. They could be in a relationship with a woman [soylentnews.org].
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 4, Informative) by kurenai.tsubasa on Thursday October 06 2016, @11:23AM
IANAStatistician, but I'm wondering why this even matters, They're overblowing a 1/200 (0.5/100) increase in the incidence of “depression,” whatever the hell that is. OMG 80%!eleven!1!
…The study, which analyzed the medical records of one million Danish women ages 15 to 34, revealed a correlation between depression and birth control, but it didn’t directly explore — or prove — that it was the birth control that explicitly caused that depression…. Other scientific experts proposed counter theories for what might have caused the depression instead — among them, being lovesick and heartbroken.
“With having a million women, there are 101 things that are variable here,” Diana Mansour, vice president for clinical quality at the Faculty for Sexual & Reproductive Healthcare in London, told Metro UK. “There’s other things going on in their life like relationships, relationships breaking down and especially with adolescents — just being in a sexual relationship.”
Catherine Monk, an associate professor in psychiatry, obstetrics and gynecology at Columbia University Medical Center, offered a similar counter-theory.
“The possibility that this link between love, sex (contraception), and feeling depressed is strengthened by the fact that the contraception-depression link was strongest in adolescents, those who are at the developmental stage where trying to find a romantic partner is paramount,” Monk told the Huffington Post.
(Emphasis of course mine.)
I might listen if they can control a few variables. Now, before somebody goes, but Tsubasa, isn't the control group also experiencing those life events?! Isn't that why the study authors in part of that excerpt above you skipped over said that it was the only logical explanation?! Plus, they're fucking with the holy womyn-born-womyn body chemistry so something has to go wrong (#include AC's radfem comment up there)! Well, hold on. Here's the data point I want because I can only speculate. How does being on the pill affect sexual promiscuity? Are women on the pill more likely to pursue sexual relationships than women using GAWduh, abstinance, and the One Ring?
But I'm sure the alt-right will eat this up. I can already see the hysteria. “Abstinence is the way to happiness! Science proves it! And the world is flat, because I only listen to science when it's convenient! Trump 2016!”
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 06 2016, @01:43PM
Why are junk studies like this being posted to soylent? It isnt even interesting to point out the problems when it is this bad. These people are just wasting everyones time...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 06 2016, @05:31PM
It probably has something to do with there being less than 3 stories in the Pending Stories queue for most of yesterday. Phoenix666 and takyon are the main reason why the list didn't run dry, but they can only do so much.
Please try to help when you can and we'll have a better choice of submissions.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 06 2016, @02:29PM
Another question is what the numbers are when breaking up the numbers between women with and without children. Maybe women without children are more often depressive than women with children, and the observed correlation is just caused by the correlation between birth control and not having children.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 06 2016, @03:00PM
Taking drugs to avoid pregnancy makes you depressed?
And no one is surprised. Because PIV is rape [wordpress.com].
And so, if you're being raped often enough that you take drugs to avoid pregnancy, you're going to be depressed.
The only real solution is to eat at the Y!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 06 2016, @04:24PM
*facepalm*
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 06 2016, @09:07PM
*facepalm*
You can scoff all you want, but the day is coming when you and that thing between your legs will be obsolete.
Thank goodness for science. Pretty soon, we'll just create our own XX embryos and won't have to worry about getting raped any more. [wordpress.com].
Your days are numbered, asshole!
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Friday October 07 2016, @02:42AM
*facepalm again!*
If my wife thought I was raping her in any way, she'd let me know ,Bobbit style. When we were younger, she'd often be the one on top and in control,: she could have climbed off and walked away. Instead, she got her pleasure as I got mine: again, she could have done it manually... instead, she went with the "rape" option and rode me as she liked.
Not all men are asses, just as not all women are...... well.... INSANE?!?!?
Get off it. Or get on it. Whatever.
I'm guessing you had a man severely hurt you. "Men" don't do those things. Only small boys/assholes. Don't confuse them with men.
And don't confuse your above response with"woman". That was not an adult response.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 07 2016, @08:07AM
PIV (Penis In Vagina) intercourse is rape. Always. [wordpress.com]
One of my fellow travelers explained this quite clearly. I link to it above, but I'll excerpt it here for you because you clearly don't get it. By engaging in PIV, you are traumatizing your abused slave ^W^W wife [wordpress.com] and she is suffering from Stockholm Syndrome and PTSD. This is reinforced every time you rape [wordpress.com] her.
. Here's what you should (but refuse to accept!) understand::
Not only do you and your evil kind routinely torture and abuse us, it's so ingrained in this patriarchal society that you think you're actually a pretty decent person. Well I'm here to tell you that you're not. You're a torturer, and along with the rest of you animals, you're destroying the planet while you torture and rape us to force our capitulation to the hellish world you've created.
No more, I say. No more.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 06 2016, @10:52PM
This is extremely easy to test for: Was the depression present before taking the birth control or only afterwards?
And it doesn't pass the common sense test: Why would depressed women want to take birth control? Is it feasible that disrupting your hormones may induce depression? The hormone disruption is far more likely to be the cause. Though not everything follows common sense: Maybe depression causes serve period pain and greatly increases fertility (both are false), but there is a tiny chance of something like that being the reason so the next study should check for this.