Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Menopausal Symptoms

Women going through the menopausal transition often experience adverse physical changes (e.g., hot flashes/night sweats, sleep difficulties, sexual concerns) in addition to emotional difficulties (e.g., depression, anxiety) that can significantly impact functioning and overall quality of life. To date, hormone therapy (HT) has been the most commonly used treatment to relieve symptoms of menopause. However, reports have questioned the safety of HT long-term (e.g., risk of heart attacks, strokes, cancer) for some women. Cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT), has been proposed as a low-risk treatment for menopausal symptoms. The investigators developed a comprehensive non-pharmacological, CBT for menopausal symptoms (CBT-Meno), published the treatment manual (Green, McCabe, \& Soares, 2012), and obtained initial evidence supporting the effectiveness of CBT-Meno in a single-sample pilot study (Green et al., 2013). The goal in the study reported here was to conduct a larger randomized controlled trial to evaluate the effectiveness of the CBT-Meno program compared to a waitlist condition. The investigators hypothesized that participants would experience less intense/disruptive hot flashes/night sweats, reduced depression and anxiety, improvement in sleep difficulties, and sexual concerns. The investigators also predicted that these benefits would be maintained at 3-month follow-up and that participants would report high treatment satisfaction.