Patterns of depressed mood across the menopausal transition: approaches to studying patterns in longitudinal data.

Acta Obstet Gynecol Scand 2002; 81: 623-632. © Acta Obstet Gynecol Scand 2002 To date many researchers have focused on depression as a discrete episode, attempting to relate its occurrence to a transition in menopausal stage or other factors that might account for its occurrence. Characterizing change over time requires consideration of pattern or trajectory, not merely discrete events. The purposes of this paper are to: 1) to explore methods for intraindividual and interindividual (group) analysis of patterns of depressed mood among midlife women 2) to identify challenges for analytic strategies for understanding depressed mood as it is experienced by midlife women, with special concern for its relationship to the menopausal transition. Data from the Seattle Midlife Women's Health Study were used to illustrate approaches to intraindividual and interindividual analysis of patterns of depressed mood. For most women, menopausal transition was not a time when there was a new episode of depression. Instead, a...