Neema Acharya

Abstract

Anxiety, Depression and stress are one of the most prevalent psychological problems witnessed in post-menopausal women. These complaints are mostly neglected by the females and ignored due to social stigmas and lack of awareness amongst the elderly population regarding the same. It often affects the quality of life and is thus essential to diagnose and treat on time. Reduced Vitamin D and estrogen levels are one of the proposed culprits behind these psychological disorders in post-menopausal women which will be discussed in this review. Systematic literature review was done with the help of data search domains such as Pubmed, Scopus, Web of science and google scholar. Case reports, observational studies and cross-sectional studies were included in this review. Depression and anxiety are common problems for the post-menopausal women. Various factors such as reduced Vitamin D levels and Estrogen levels as well as increased stress can contribute to development of these psychological complaints. Though these problems might look benign to the patients, they can severely impact the mental health and require more awareness amongst the patients to improve the mental as well as physical health in post-menopausal women. Women in the post-menopausal stage have increased predisposition towards developing psychological disorders and hence the assessment of mental health is essential in these females which should be a vital part of the evaluation done of these females. Keywords: Menopause, Depression, Anxiety

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