In an earlier report,1 I reviewed the literature in English on the estrogen therapy of patients with agitated depressions which had been published up to Dec. 31, 1940. A number of opinions expressed in that study and implied by the figures presented can now be reconsidered in the light of information since collected.
In the previous study, of 164 patients treated with estrogens over a sufficient time, only 79 (48 per cent) recovered or showed notable improvement during the period of therapy. The percentage of patients successfully treated did not increase as the dose of estrogen was increased. Because of this experience and the poor results in so many cases, it was concluded that estrogen therapy was not specific for involutional melancholia and that its use would only increase the incidence of recovery or notable improvement. It was suggested, however, that the statistically poor result might be due to