The Correlation of Oral Contraceptive Pills (OCPs) use and Depression

Oral Contraceptive Pills (OCPs) are the most commonly form of reversible contraception used throughout the world. While use is prevalent, discontinuation rate of oral OCP is high. Mood disturbance has been identified as a side effect of OCP use and is of such concern to many women that is has resulted in their discontinuation of OCP use. The purpose of this study was to investigate the correlation of oral contraceptive pills and depression in women. This descriptive study was performed on 410 women who referred to Tamin-Ejtemaei hospital of Hamadan from May to October 2009. Samples were selected using by randomized systematic method and were randomly divided into OCP (205) and non-OCP (205) groups. The assessment tool was two-part questionnaire containing the demographics data and short depression scale data. Data were analyzed by Chi-square and fisher’s test and using SPSS 14 software. There was significant correlation between OCP use and depression score (p=0.006) and difference between depression score and increase of OCP use duration was significant (p=0.01). OCP users might be more vulnerable to depression.