prevalence of menopausal related depression and prevalence of menopausal related depression and

introduction: menopause is one of the critical stages in a woman’s life that can influence their health during middle age. takeing into account the prevalence of depression as a psychological problem during menopausal period, this study was conducted to determine the prevalence of depression and its relative factors in different stages of menopause in women residing in kermanshah city, 2003. materials and methods: this descriptive study was conducted on 460 women aged between 40-60. individual and social characteristics and their depression were assessed by beck depression inventory scale. individuals with bdi scores of more than 16 were considered as having clinical depression. results: the mean age of subjects was 47.3 ± 5.9. 39% of subjects were perimenopause, 33% were postmenopause and 28% were perimenopause. 32.2% were depressed, and the most prevalence of depression (39.3%) was seen in perimenopausal women and the least prevalence (21.6%) was seen in perimenopausal ones (p<0.001). conclusion: the prevalence of depression in middle aged women in the perimenopausal  period was more than of other stages and most of the variables of menopause had significant correlation with depression. with respect to the results of this research, depression is an important problem in middle aged women in this area and with regard to the effects of depression, researchers recommend an analytic study to determine the role of the most important factors and consequently an experimental study to reduce its prevalence.