NUTRITIONAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL STATUS OF YOUNG-WOMEN AFTER A SHORT-TERM USE OF A TRIPHASIC CONTRACEPTIVE STEROID PREPARATION

The present study was aimed to assess the psychological status of youn g healthy women after the administration of a triphasic contraceptive steroid preparation for six complete menstrual cycles. Subjects had ne ver used oral contraceptives (OC) and had neither a familial history o f depression nor psychological disturbances. OC-induced psychological disturbances were interpreted for years as evidence of pyridoxine (vit amin Bg) deficiency. Other nutritional deficiencies, namely in cobalam in, folate and iron, can disturb the functioning of the central nervou s system. In addition, a deficiency of any of these nutrients can lead to several anemia-induced symptoms that are highly susceptible to inf luence the psychological status. For ample evidence, nutritional statu s was then evaluated in parallel to psychological testing. Blood iron and vitamin levels of interest were found to be adequate and could not have biaised the response to a psychological test (MMPI). This study showed that a 6-month Triphasi(R) treatment did not modify significant ly the psychological status of subjects. To our knowledge, this is the first psychological study on young never OC-users taking an identical triphasic contraceptive steroid preparation to investigate early psyc hological side-effects due to OC, at a similar time of the menstrual c ycle, when nutritional status was also evaluated.