Some women being treated for depression with gender-blind medications could be benefit from other treatment techniques more attuned to female hormonal changes that affect depression, experts said.

Estrogen levels drop before a woman begins menstruating, causing serotonin, a brain chemical that plays a part in determining mood, levels to drop; this decrease causes depression for some women, said Peter Schmidt, National Institute of Mental Health behavioral endocrinology chief.

Only 10 to 15 percent of women have serious mood changes during premenstrual syndrome, but researchers are working on new hormone treatments to target female depression tied to fluctuating hormone levels, Schmidt said.

Recent studies show more than half of women given treatments designed for female hormone levels saw their symptoms disappear, he said.

“If we link the role of hormones and depression symptoms, we may be able to regulate those hormones and alleviate the symptoms,” Schmidt said.

Florida Detox Medical Director Rick Sponaugle said girls and boys have the same risk for depression until age 13, around when many girls begin to menstruate. After that point, females suffer from two to three times as many depression and anxiety problems as males because of increased levels of testosterone, estrogen and progesterone, he said.

Many doctors will prescribe antidepressants to combat premenstrual depression, but prescription drugs can cause dependence and lead to addiction, Sponaugle said.

“I had a 21-year-old antidepressant addict and alcoholic who came to me from [a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center],” he said. “She was always having long and painful bleeding on her period. She was diagnosed with depression, when in reality she was anemic and became iron deficient.”

Sponaugle said some doctors do not understand how female hormones change and psychologically affect women, and this leads to the over-prescription of antidepressants.

The first step in dealing with premenstrual depression is defining whether it is serious enough to require medication, said clinical physician Janet Laubgross. She recommends women chart their mood daily on a simple graph to see if mood fluctuation coincides with their menstrual cycle and also to assess the severity of mood changes.

Laubgross said if a woman’s mood fluctuates dramatically during the three or four days before her period, she “obviously” has symptoms of hormonal depression.

“How bad are you, really?” she said. “If you aren’t getting out of bed, you are pretty depressed.”

There are many ways to treat depression without medication, she said. If premenstrual depression is not very severe, women can use coping skills including exercising, healthy eating and reducing stress, to work around the symptoms, Laubgross said.

“If you have an exam you have no choice, but don’t try to add extra stress,” she said. “If the coping mechanisms don’t work, then you can look to medicate.”