Last Updated: 2003-08-25 13:23:11 -0400 (Reuters Health)

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Despite all the recent bad news about estrogen replacement therapy, results of a small study suggest that it may help women who suffer from depression while they're going through menopause.

Researchers at Harvard Medical School in Boston found that short-term treatment with estrogen reduced symptoms of depression in menopausal women. However, the benefit for postmenopausal depressed women was less pronounced.

Dr. Lee S. Cohen and associates enrolled 10 menopausal women and 12 postmenopausal women who were diagnosed with depression in a trial of four-weeks' treatment with a patch delivering estradiol, a form of estrogen.

Before treatment began, the women's depression scores on a rating scale ranged from 14 to 32, according to an article in the American Journal of Psychiatry. After the four weeks of treatment, the depression score fell to less than 10 for six menopausal and two postmenopausal women.

The effect was stronger, with bigger drops in the depression score, among the women who were going through menopause.

The differences between groups "support the hypothesis that depression in (menopausal) women may constitute a distinct reproductive-cycle-associated mood disturbance that may be responsive to hormonal interventions," the researchers maintain.

The effect on mood with estrogen-patch treatment seemed to be unrelated to any improvement in hot flashes or night sweats.

If their findings are confirmed, Dr. Cohen's group believes that a rapid improvement in depression may indicate that depressed women around the time of menopause might benefit from short-term estrogen therapy.