Depression, anxiety & mood

Anxiety and hot flashes

The May/June 2005 issue of Menopause: The Journal of the North American Menopause Society reports that lifestyle factors, including anxiety levels, play a critical role in a woman’s experience of hot flashes during perimenopause.

Women who rated themselves as “moderately anxious” due to life stresses experienced three times as many hot flashes compared with women who were within “normal” anxiety range. Those with “high” anxiety scores experienced five times as many hot flashes. How do you explain this?

Recently a study by Wayne State University School of Medicine followed pre-, peri- and post-menopausal women over 25 years and discovered an interesting difference between women who suffer from hot flashes and those who don’t. They found that women with a narrow thermoneutral zone (the core temperature range the body maintains by sweating or shivering) suffer more hot flashes.

What narrows a thermoneutral zone in animals? Norepinephrine, the neurotransmitter related to anxiety. So the same may be proven true in humans.

This assertion is backed up by the fact that the drug clonidine lowers norepinephrine levels in humans and widens the thermoneutral zone — as does estrogen and certain anti-depressant medications. But we still don’t know why. Deep, paced breathing tends to lessen the severity of a hot flash and help alleviate symptoms of panic — again, they seem to be related, but more research needs to be done.

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Last Modified Date: 04/18/2011