Het gebruik van de anticonceptiepil en depressieve klachten

Abstract

This study investigated the potential relationship between the use of oral contraceptive use and depressive symptoms in adolescent girls, along with the influence of usage duration. There were multiple regression analyses conducted with data from the RADAR-Y study (Branje, 2018). Given the common occurrence and severity of depressive symptoms, the goal was to gain insights into this relationship. However, the results did not provide any evidence supporting a higher prevalence of depressive symptoms among pill users compared to non-users (t = 0.197, p = 0.844). Therefore, the first hypothesis that oral contraceptive use affects depressive symptoms could not be confirmed. These findings differ from previous studies involving adult women (Gingnell et al., 2013; Lindberg et al., 2012; Skovlund et al., 2016; Wiréhn et al., 2010), suggesting that the effect may vary across different age groups. Moreover, no evidence was found to suggest that the duration of oral contraceptive use influences depressive symptoms (t = 0.792, p = 0.430). A possible explanation for these findings is that many women discontinue pill use within a year (Keyes et al., 2013). However, this information was not available in the collected data. Despite valuable insights, this study has limitations, including a smaller sample size due to missing values and oversampling of adolescents at an increased risk of delinquent behavior. Future research with larger samples, examining long-term effects and various hormonal contraceptive methods, is necessary for a comprehensive understanding of this topic