​Title

Hormonal contributions to depressive episodes in women - Insights from register-based cohort studies from Denmark.

Abstract

Depression is twice as prevalent in women compared to men with a lifetime prevalence of 17-21%. This heightened prevalence likely arises from a complex interplay of social, psychological, and biological factors. Evidence suggests that hormones may contribute to depressive episodes throughout women's reproductive phases, particularly during periods of significant hormonal fluctuations such as in premenstrual, postpartum, and perimenopausal stages. Moreover, emerging research associates hormonal contraceptive use with an elevated depression risk. Our understanding of how changes in the hormonal milieu can contribute to depressive episodes and whether it is the same women who are at risk across different reproductive stages remains unknown. This thesis aimed to use cohort studies based on Danish national health registry data to investigate the link between progestin exposure and depression risk, to determine if depressive episodes across different reproductive events are linked, and if hormonal contraceptive use in the postpartum period is linked to an increased risk of depression.

Establishing such knowledge could aid in understanding the role of hormones in the development of depressive episodes, which may assist in identifying women who are more susceptible to hormonal fluctuations and thereby inform future prevention and treatment strategies for depression.

Principal Supervisor

• Professor Vibe Gedsø Frøkjær

Co-supervisors

• Professor Øjvind Lidegaard
• Professor Annamaria Giovanna Elena Giraldi

Assessment committee

• Professor Maj Vinberg Dept of Clinical Medicine, Univ Cph
• Professor Søren Dinesen Østergaard, Dept Affective Disorders, Aarhus University Hospital
• Professor Birgit Derntl, Dept Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Women’s Mental Health & Brain Function, Univ Tübingen, Germany