Polycystic ovary syndrome and depression in New Zealand adolescents

Abstract

Objective: To determine whether adolescents with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) are more depressed than adolescent girls in the community and to examine factors associated with depression.

Design: An observational study comparing clinical and community samples.

Setting: Two specialist reproductive endocrine clinics in Auckland, New Zealand.

Participants: 102 girls aged 14-19 presenting for clinical assessment, fulfilling the Rotterdam consensus for PCOS. The comparison group was 1349 girls from a school-based survey of New Zealand youth.

Interventions: Clinically significant depression was identified by the long and short form Reynolds Adolescent Depression Scale. BMI, androgen levels, oral contraceptive use, objective symptom severity, age, ethnicity, and socioeconomic grouping were recorded.

Main outcome measures: Clinically significant depression in the PCOS and community samples. Potential determinants of depression.

Results: Clinically significant depression in adolescent girls with PCOS was not increased compared with the community sample (OR 1.3; 95%CI 0.7-2.7, P = .42). Within the PCOS cohort, depression was correlated with increased BMI (P = .01) and possibly acne (P = .08).

Conclusions: Lean adolescent girls with PCOS did not have more clinically significant depression than girls in the community. Within the PCOS cohort, however, there was a clear association between higher depression scores and elevated BMI. There is a potentially important interaction between obesity and depression in PCOS.