Abstract
Hot flushes and night sweats (HF/NS), the main physical symptoms experienced during the menopause transition, tend to be problematic for approximately 20–25% of women. Hormone therapy (HT) is an effective treatment, but HT use has declined following the publication of results of clinical trials and HT is usually contraindicated for women who have had breast cancer. Cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) is an effective treatment for anxiety and depression, and exploratory trials suggest that it might be helpful for HF/NS. The results of two randomized controlled trials (MENOS 1 and MENOS 2), carried out with breast cancer patients and healthy women, suggest that CBT delivered in groups and in a guided self-help format can significantly reduce the impact of HF/NS. Additional benefits were found in mood and quality of life. CBT could therefore offer an alternative to women with troublesome HF/NS.
Financial & competing interests disclosure
MENOS 1 was funded by a grant from Cancer Research UK (Grant ref: C8303/A6130) and MENOS 2 was funded by the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre for Mental Health, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London. The author has no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.
No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.