The role of depressive symptomatology in peri- and post-menopause

The frequency of vasomotor and somatic symptoms appears to increase with depressed affect. The management of symptoms could include interventions of a psychotherapeutic nature, which may offset this effect, particularly in women for whom depressive symptoms are a feature of the climacteric syndrome. The extent to which depression and the climacteric syndrome may be causally related to one another remains unclear and longitudinal research should further examine the mechanisms of this association.