Morning Report

Hormonal Contraceptives and the Lesser-Known Link With Suicide Risk

Arefa Cassoobhoy, MD, MPH

December 15, 2017

Hello. I'm Dr Arefa Cassoobhoy, a practicing internist, Medscape advisor, and senior medical director for WebMD. Welcome to Morning Report, our 1-minute news story for primary care.

Mood Changes With Hormonal Contraception

Hormonal contraceptives are used successfully by millions of women to prevent pregnancy and treat menstrual-related conditions and acne. For a small group, however, contraception is linked with adverse mood effects, including depression. A recent study^[1] took this a step further to focus on the risk for suicide.

Almost half a million Danish women were followed prospectively from age 15, before they began using birth control. In women ages 15-33, hormonal contraceptives were associated with an increased risk for first suicide attempt. The risk peaked after 2 months of contraceptive use and decreased after 1 year.

Adolescent women had the highest relative risks. And use of the patch, vaginal ring, and progestin-only products had a higher risk than oral combined products.

So, what do we do with this information? The next time you're counseling a patient about the benefits and risks of hormonal birth control, be sure to mention the slight chance of depression.

Follow Dr Cassoobhoy on Twitter at @ArefaMD

References

Any views expressed above are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the views of WebMD or Medscape.

Cite this: Hormonal Contraceptives and the Lesser-Known Link With Suicide Risk - Medscape - Dec 15, 2017.

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