Abstract

Depression in women can cause crucial physical, psychological and social reactions. Different studies showed controversial effects of Depo-Provera on incidence and intensifying depression or else wise not being effective on the mood. A total of 64 women  aged 18 to 45 participated in a 12 weeks Depo-Provera injection intervention. Assessments were made before and 12 weeks after Depo-Provera injection in an urban and rural Primary HealthcareCenter (PHCs) of Babol, Mazandaran, Iran. The subjects were selected using a clustering random sampling technique. The questionnaire used included depressive symptoms, obstetrics and delivery, socio-demographic and psychosocial factors. A standard questionnaire named Beck questionnaire was used to assess depressive symptom. Fisher exact test and Wilcoxon was used to analyze data. Mean depression symptoms was 6.5 ± 8.2 at base line, and 4.5 ± 6.6 at 12 weeks after Depo-Provera injection (p = 0.001). There was a significant difference between depression before to Depo-Provera administration and being content with spouse’s family (p = 0.034) and a history of depressed mood (p = 0.026), whereas a sense of loosing independency had a significant difference before (p = 0.001) and after (p = 0.024) Depo-Provera administration. As there was no relation between Depo-Provera administration and depression symptoms in this study, we can increase the use of this product by proper consultation before contraception.

Key words: Depression, Depo-Provera (depo-medroxy progesterone acetate), Beck test.