History of depression and women's current health and functioning during midlife.

Objective: To examine the association of past depression with current physical and mood symptoms and functioning in a community cohort of middle-aged African-American, White, and Hispanic women without current depression and whether the associations varied by severity of prior depression.

Methods: The study was conducted as part of a longitudinal multisite investigation of middle-aged women's health, the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN). Nine hundred twenty-two women, aged 42-52 years, participated in The Structured Clinical Interview for the Diagnosis of DSM-IV Axis I Disorders (SCID) at study entry at three SWAN sites; 780 did not have current depression and formed the analytic sample.

Racial/ethnic differences in the prevalence of depressive symptoms among middle-aged women: The Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN).

Objectives: We examined racial/ethnic differences in significant depressive symptoms among middle-aged women before and after adjustment for socioeconomic, health-related, and psychosocial characteristics.

Methods: Racial/ethnic differences in unadjusted and adjusted prevalence of significant depressive symptoms (score >/= 16 on the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression [CES-D] Scale) were assessed with univariate and multiple logistic regressions.

Results: Twenty-four percent of the sample had a CES-D score of 16 or higher.

Persistent mood symptoms in a multiethnic community cohort of pre- and perimenopausal women.

To further our understanding of the relation between mood and menopause, the authors examined 1) the association between persistent mood symptoms and menopausal status and 2) factors that increase a woman's vulnerability to an overall dysphoric mood during the early perimenopausal period. The sample consisted of an ethnically diverse community cohort of 3,302 pre- and early perimenopausal women aged 42-52 years who were participants in the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation, an ongoing US multisite longitudinal study of menopause and aging. At study entry (1995-1997), women reported information on recent menstrual regularity and premenstrual symptoms, as well as on sociodemographic, symptom, health, sleep, psychosocial, and lifestyle variables.