{"id":552327,"date":"2026-07-16T08:13:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T08:13:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/552327\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T08:13:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T08:13:15","slug":"oral-contraceptives-linked-to-depression-risk-emj","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/552327\/","title":{"rendered":"Oral Contraceptives Linked to Depression Risk \u2013 EMJ"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>ORAL <a href=\"https:\/\/www.emjreviews.com\/reproductive-health\/news\/nhs-data-reveals-unequal-access-to-contraceptives\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">CONTRACEPTIVES<\/a> are tied to an increased risk of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.emjreviews.com\/general-healthcare\/news\/rumination-strongly-linked-to-depression-in-adolescents\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">depression<\/a> diagnoses, antidepressant initiation, and depressive symptoms in healthy women, according to a new large-scale meta-analysis.1<\/p>\n<p>Oral Contraceptives and Depression<\/p>\n<p>Oral contraceptives are a safe, highly effective, and popular method of contraceptives, with an estimated 151 million users worldwide.2<\/p>\n<p>Women are more likely to have depression than men, with WHO estimating that 4.6% of adult men and 6.9% of adult women experience depression. 3<\/p>\n<p>31% More Likely to Be Diagnosed with Depression<\/p>\n<p>Nearly 2.5 million women aged 12 years or older were included in analysis, across14 screened references.1<\/p>\n<p>Five studies, including more than 1.6 million participants, examined depression diagnoses.<\/p>\n<p>Women using oral contraceptives were 31% more likely to be diagnosed with depression compared to non-users.<\/p>\n<p>25% More Likely to Take Antidepressants<\/p>\n<p>Three studies, including more than 2.1 million participants, analysed antidepressant use.<\/p>\n<p>Oral contraceptive users were 25% more likely to take antidepressants than non-users.<\/p>\n<p>Higher Depressive Symptom Scores<\/p>\n<p>Eight studies, including 2,525 participants, measured depressive symptom scores.<\/p>\n<p>Oral contraceptive users had statistically significantly higher depressive symptom scores than non-users.<\/p>\n<p>However, the clinical implications of the difference in symptoms were small.<\/p>\n<p>In subgroup analyses, researchers found no evidence of group differences by study design, follow-up length, or progestogen content.<\/p>\n<p>Implications for Contraception Prescribers<\/p>\n<p>Overall, there was a significant link between hormonal oral contraceptives and depression in women without pre-existing psychological and gynaecological conditions.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers reported that this association highlights that adverse effects of oral contraceptives on people\u2019s mood should be closely monitored by prescribers.<\/p>\n<p>References<\/p>\n<p>1 Kellock MD et al. Association of oral contraceptives with depression symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment in healthy women: a meta-analysis. Eur J Obstet Gynecol Reprod Biol. 2026;DOI:10.1016\/j.ejogrb.2026.<\/p>\n<p>2 United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Contraceptive use by method: data booklet. 2019. Available at: https:\/\/www.un.org\/development\/desa\/pd\/sites\/www.un.org.development.desa.pd\/files\/files\/documents\/2020\/Jan\/un_2019_contraceptiveusebymethod_databooklet.pdf. Last accessed: 10 July 2026.<\/p>\n<p>3 World Health Organization. Depressive disorder (depression). 2025. Available at: https:\/\/www.who.int\/news-room\/fact-sheets\/detail\/depression. Last accessed: 10 July 2026.<\/p>\n<p>Featured image: stas_malyarevsky on Adobe Stock<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORAL CONTRACEPTIVES are tied to an increased risk of depression diagnoses, antidepressant initiation, and depressive symptoms in healthy&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":552328,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[103,61,60],"class_list":["post-552327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=552327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/552328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=552327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=552327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=552327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}