A prospective study of the effects of the progestagen content of oral contraceptives on measures of affect, automatization, and perceptual restructuring ability.

Thirty-five young women completed the Profile of Mood States and tests of automatization and perceptual restructuring ability before and after commencing one of three forms or oral contraception (OC) or one form of intrauterine contraception (the loop). For each subject on each experimental variable the difference between the first and second tests was computed. These data were then analysed by covariance and discriminant function analyses. Two sets of functions were derived. The first distinguished the loop users from the OC users. The latter exhibited significantly greater increases in anger and significantly greater reductions in vigor than the former. The second set of discriminant functions distinguished users of Neogynon from the women in the other three groups. Neogynon users' performances on the Color Words Test (a measure of automatization ability) worsened and their anger, vigor and tension scores had decreased to a greater extent than was the case for members of the other groups. It is suggested that the changes in affect demonstrated by the first discriminant function were related to personal and attitudinal variables associated with the Loop users. The second discriminant function was interpreted as an indication that the varying progestagen content of OC may have differential effects upon both affect and automatization ability.