Research Article ISSN 2250-0480 VOL 8/ ISSUE 1/JAN 2018 P-12 Pharmaceutical Science Medicine THE EFFECT OF GROUP COGNITIVE-BEHAVIORAL THERAPY ON DEPRESSION IN MENOPAUSAL WOMEN: A RANDOMIZED CLINICAL TRIAL MARZIE SOORI 1 , MITRA KOLIVAND 1* , YADOLLAH ABOLFATHI MOMTAZ 2 , NADER SALARI 3 1 Department of Midwifery, Nursing and Midwifery Faculty, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran 2 Department of Elderly, Tehran University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences, Tehran, Iran 3 Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Nursing and Midwifery Faculty, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran ABSTRACT Psychological and cognitive consequences of menopause such as irritability, stress, anxiety, feelings of sadness, mood changes, and depression affect quality of life of women in this period. Doing consultation with female patients to help them to cope with these changes can be useful. The current study was done to assess the effect of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) on depression in menopausal women in Tooiserkan, Iran.In this randomized clinical trial, 76 menopausal women who presented to health centers of Tooiserkan, Iran from September to December 2016 were included. Six CBT sessions were held. The Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21) was applied. After completing six CBT sessions, and also one month later the measurements were done. The data were analyzed using the Mann-Whitney and Friedman tests.Comparisons of depression scores between the two groups before initiating CBT was not significant (P> 0.05). Within-group comparisons of depression scores before and after CBT and one month later showed significant changes in CBT group (P< 0.001). These changes in control group were not significant (P> 0.05). It is suggested to use CBT for menopausal women to improve the quality of life of this group. KEYWORDS: Depression; menopause; cognitive-behavioral therapy INTRODUCTION Menopause is defined retrospectively as the last menstrual period followed by 12 months of amenorrhea. Average age at menopause is 51 years 1 . In Iran, average menopause age is 47.8 years 2 . Despite the rise in life expectancy for women, menopause age has remained constant. Therefore, with the increased life expectancy, women spend nearly one-third of their life span after menopause. According to the latest population and housing census by the Statistical Center of Iran in 2011, there were 8,070,430 women in the age range of 50 to 65 years (10.74% of the total population) 3 . Since after menopause, the ovaries stop producing significant amounts of estrogen, so the symptoms and diseases associated estrogen deficiency become important in women health 1 .Along with the menopause and reverse metabolic changes that occur during the transition from pre-menopause to post-menopause phase, women are susceptible to various diseases such as osteoporosis, osteopenia 4,5 , high blood pressure, and cardiovascular diseases 6,8 . Also, psychological and cognitive consequences of menopause can affect quality of life of women. These include sleep disturbances, fatigue, impaired short-term memory, irritability, stress, anxiety, feelings of sadness, anger, lack of motivation, difficulty concentrating, mood changes and depression 2 . Many women report difficulty in concentrating and emotional instability during this period 1 . Research shows that depressive symptoms occur more frequently the perimenopausal period 9 , as 26 to 33% of women experience their first depressive episode in their menopause 10 .In Jung et al. study 11 it was reported that the risk of depression increased linearly with decreasing