Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T14:01:57.599Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Life Stress and Symptoms at the Climacterium

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

J. G. Greene  and
D. J. Cooke
J. G. Greene
Affiliation:
Gartnavel Royal Hospital, Glasgow G12 0XH
D. J. Cooke
Affiliation:
Gartnavel Royal Hospital, Glasgow G12 0XH
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Psychological and somatic symptoms presented by women in middle life are frequently attributed to the menopause. Many writers have questioned this assumption and have placed more emphasis on environmental and personality factors. Using a life event model and a multivariate analysis technique, life stress was shown to have a significantly more powerful influence on the elevation of symptoms in a normal population of women at that age than did the menopause. Furthermore, the elevation in symptoms occurred some considerable time before that event. The finding that there was no significant increase in total life stress at that time of life suggests the presence of a vulnerability or moderating factor.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 136 , Issue 5 , May 1980 , pp. 486 - 491
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ballinger, C. B. (1975) Psychiatric morbidity and the menopause: screening of a general population sample. British Medical Journal, iii, 344–6.Google Scholar
Ballinger, C. B. (1976) Psychiatric morbidity and the menopause: clinical features. British Medical Journal, i, 1183–5.Google Scholar
Ballinger, C. B. (1977) Psychiatric morbidity and the menopause: survey of a gynaecological out-patient clinic. British Journal of Psychiatry, 131, 83–9.Google Scholar
Brown, G. W. & Harris, T. (1978) Social Origins of Depression: A Study of Psychiatric Disorder in Women. London: Tavistock.Google Scholar
Cohen, J. (1968) Multiple regression as a general data-analytic system. Psychological Bulletin, 70, 426–43.Google Scholar
Cooke, D. J. (1979) Some conceptual and methodological considerations of the problems inherent in the specification of the simple event syndrome link. In Stress and Anxiety, Vol. 7 (eds. Sarason, I. G. and Spielberger, C. D.). New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Darlington, R. B. (1968) Multiple regression in psychological research and practice. Psychological Bulletin, 69, 161–82.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dominian, J. (1977) The role of psychiatry in the menopause. Clinics in Obstetrics and Gynaecology, 4, 3–29.Google Scholar
Garrity, T. F., Somes, G. W. & Marx, M. B. (1977) Personality factors in resistance to illness after recent life changes. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 21, 23–32.Google Scholar
Greene, J. G. (1976) A factor analytic study of climacteric symptoms. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 20, 425–30.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Greene, J. G. (1979) Stress at the climacterium: the assessment of symptomatology. In Stress and Anxiety, Vol. 7 (eds. Sarason, I. G. and Spielberger, C. D.). New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Jaszmann, L., Van Lith, N. D. & Zatt, J. C. A. (1969) The perimenopausal symptoms. Medical Gynaecology and Sociology, 4, 268–75.Google Scholar
McKinlay, S. M. & Jefferys, M. (1974) The menopausal syndrome. British Journal of Preventative and Social Medicine, 28, 108–15.Google ScholarPubMed
Miller, P. McC. & Ingham, J. G. (1976) Friends, confidants and symptoms. Social Psychiatry, 11, 51–8.Google Scholar
Mitchell, A. R. K. (1971) Psychological Medicine in Family Practice. London: Bailliere Tindall.Google Scholar
Neugarten, B. L. & Kraines, R. J. (1965) Menopausal symptoms in women of various ages. Psychosomatic Medicine, 27, 266–73.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nie, N. H., Hull, C. H., Jenkins, J. G., Steinbrenner, K. & Bent, D. H. (1975) Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. New York: McGraw Hill.Google Scholar
Parkes, C. M. (1971) Psychosocial transitions: a field study. Social Science and Medicine, 5, 101–15.Google Scholar
Paykel, E. S., Myers, J. K., Dienelt, M. N., Klerman, G. C., Lindenthal, J. J. & Pepper, M. P. (1969) Life events and depression: a controlled study. Archives of General Psychiatry, 21, 753–60.Google Scholar
Paykel, E. S., McGuiness, B. & Gomez, J. (1976) An Anglo-American comparison of the scaling of life events. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 49, 237–47.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Prill, H. J. (1966) Die Beziehung von Erkrankungen und social psychologischen Faktoren zum Klimakterium. Medizinische Klinik, 61, 1325–30.Google Scholar
Slater, E. & Roth, M. (1969) Clinical Psychiatry. London: Bailliere, Tindall and Cassell.Google Scholar
Studd, J. Chakravarti, S. & Okram, D. (1977) The climacteric. Clinics in Obstetrics and Gynaecology, 4, 3–29.Google Scholar
Thompson, B., Hart, S. A. & Durno, D. (1973) Menopausal age and symptomatology in a general practice. Journal of Biosocial Science, 5, 71–82.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.