Mood and the pill

Hamstra, D.A. (2021)

Doctoral Thesis

This PhD project revealed that the female hormonal status – including OC use – and stress vulnerability – as defined by the MR-haplotype – have practical implications in experimental psychological research. Furthermore, incorporation of these variables in models of emotional information processing may be of help in understanding and treating mood disorders in women. Namely, even small biases may affect information processing and may contribute to the resilience or proneness to mood-disorders.
Our research was among the first to show that the genetic makeup of healthy women may play a role in the influence of the female hormonal status on emotional information processing. Healthy female MR-haplotype 1/3 carriers may be more prone to distress, and may also be more sensitive to (pharmacological) changes which may counteract or sustain their vulnerability. Consistently, we observed subtle markers of depressogenic side-effects of OC only in MR-haplotype 1/3 carriers. Our findings regarding the MR-haplotypes 2 carriers are generally in line with earlier observations. We observed that MR-haplotype 2 carriers – especially homozygotes – are the less susceptible, more optimistic and more rational individuals, also in ‘unstressed’ conditions. However, stress-related psychopathology is very heterogeneous by nature and proteins from multiple genes are likely to interact in the stress-susceptibility phenotype. Last but not least, we should not ignore that the increased vulnerability of women to mood disorders is the result of a plethora of biological, psychological and sociological factors.
OC-users had lower affect variability and reduced sensitivity to interpersonal emotional cues. This may be experienced as either a stabilizing or a blunting effect of OC, perhaps depending on the individual’s appraisal. The lower depression scores of OC-users in our longitudinal study suggests a protective effect of monophasic OC on symptoms of reproductive depression. Future studies should investigate (former) OC-users in larger cohorts including novel users, satisfied users and ‘brand-switchers’ in order to control for the survivor effect.

• Depression
• Oral contraceptives
• Menstrual cycle
• Stress vulnerability
• MR-haplotype
• Emotional information

• All authors: Hamstra, D.A.
• Supervisor: Does, A.J.W. van der; Kloet, E.R. de
• Co-supervisor: Rover, M. de
• Committee: Bruijn, E.R.A. de; Hemert, A.M. van; Meijer, O.C.
• Qualification: Doctor (dr.)
• Awarding Institution: Institute of Psychology, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Leiden University
• Date: 2021-09-30
• ISBN (print): 9789057122279