Placing Premenstrual Syndrome in Perspective

McFarlane, Jessica Motherwell; Williams, Tannis M.

doi:10.1111/j.1471-6402.1994.tb00460.x

Cited by 26 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Many gather data for only 1 MC, which does not capture cycle-to-cycle variation [10]. Culturally generated expectations can bias reporting; women socialized to expect premenstrual distress are primed to report increased problems during that phase [6,11,12]. Methodologies designed to minimize this bias are: (i) to collect information prospectively, (ii) to obscure the menstrual focus of the research, (iii) to offer a range of mood items for study such as increased energy or positive (happy) mood as well as depression/irritability and (iv) to include all MC phases for comparison with the premenstruum; if only some phases are studied, it is not possible to conclude that the premenstruum has the worst moods.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mood and the Menstrual Cycle

Romans¹,

Kreindler²,

Asllani³

et al. 2012

Psychother Psychosom

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Background: Premenstrual mood symptoms are considered common in women, but such prevailing attitudes are shaped by social expectations about gender, emotionality and hormonal influences. There are few prospective, community studies of women reporting mood data from all phases of the menstrual cycle (MC). We aimed (i) to analyze daily mood data over 6 months for MC phase cyclicity and (ii) to compare MC phase influences on a woman’s daily mood with that attributable to key alternate explanatory variables (physical health, perceived stress and social support). Method: A random sample of Canadian women aged 18–40 years collected mood and health data daily over 6 months, using telemetry, producing 395 complete MCs for analysis. Results: Only half the individual mood items showed any MC phase association; these links were either with the menses phase alone or the menses plus the premenstrual phase. With one exception, the association was not solely premenstrual. The menses-follicular-luteal MC division gave similar results. Less than 0.5% of the women’s individual periodogram records for each mood item showed MC entrainment. Physical health, perceived stress and social support were much stronger predictors of mood (p < 0.0001 in each case) than MC phase. Conclusions: The results of this study do not support the widespread idea of specific premenstrual dysphoria in women. Daily physical health status, perceived stress and social support explain daily mood better than MC phase.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mood and the Menstrual Cycle

Romans¹,

Kreindler²,

Asllani³

et al. 2012

Psychother Psychosom

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“…In the present study the incidence was even higher (67%). Self-diagnosis of PMS was even more prevalent in this college sample 300 H. Smith and S. P. Thomas (89%) than in a community sample of 60 women studied by McFarlane and Williams (1994). In that study, 51.7% of participants said they had PMS, although only 11.7 % met the researchers' "conservative criteria" and only 6.7% had both self-and researcher-designated PMS.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 63%

Anger and Locus of Control in Young Women with and without Premenstrual Syndrome

Smith¹,

Thomas

1996

Issues in Mental Health Nursing

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The purpose of this study was to examine differences in locus of control and anger in college women with and without premenstrual syndrome (PMS). One hundred thirty-seven female undergraduates completed a biographical questionnaire, the Rotter Internal-External Locus of Control (I-E) Scale, the Spielberger State Trait Anger Scale (STAS), the Framingham Anger Scale (FAS), and a women's health questionnaire. After 65 women who had had children or used hormonally based contraceptives or psychotropic medications were excluded, the remaining subjects were placed into a PMS (n = 48) or a non-PMS group (n = 24) according to whether they met DSM-IV criteria for Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD). After debriefing the sample, the women were asked if they believed they had PMS. Results of the study showed no significant differences between groups in locus of control or anger. Out of the 72 subjects in the final analysis, 64 (89%) believed they had PMS, and only 8 (or 11%) believed they did not. Self-diagnosis was not always correct; 16 (22%) of the women who believed they had PMS did not meet the DSM-IV criteria for the disorder. The DSM-IV criteria may need further refinement and validation.

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“…Additionally, this sample of women reported an increase in non-pathological anxiety, depressive, and obsessive-compulsive symptoms; somatization; neuroticism; and interpersonal sensitivity in the premenstrual versus the follicular phase (Gonda et al, 2008), suggesting that even healthy women experience a consistent fluctuation of affect across the menstrual cycle. However, some prospective studies following the same women over time have found little evidence for a consistent pattern of negative premenstrual symptom worsening as compared to other cycle phases, despite the fact that many of these women reported experiencing premenstrual syndrome in retrospective reports (Hardie, 1997; McFarlane and Williams, 1994). This highlights the importance of using prospective symptom tracking to identify menstrual cycle-related changes.…”

Section: Psychopathology Related To the Menstrual Cyclementioning

confidence: 97%

Anxiety sensitivity, the menstrual cycle, and panic disorder: A putative neuroendocrine and psychological interaction

Nillni

Toufexis

Rohan

2011

Clinical Psychology Review

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The 2:1 female-to-male sex difference in the prevalence of Panic Disorder (PD) suggests that there is a sex-specific vulnerability involved in the etiology and/or maintenance of this disorder. The purpose of this paper is to present a new conceptual model, which emphasizes the interaction between a cognitive vulnerability for PD, anxiety sensitivity, and the effects of progesterone and its metabolite, allopregnanolone, on behavioral and physiological responses to stress during the premenstrual phase. This interaction is proposed to be a potential sex-specific pathway that may initiate and/or maintain panic and anxiety symptoms in women. This review paper presents preliminary evidence from both the human and animal literatures to support this new model. Specific topics reviewed include: psychopathology related to the menstrual cycle, anxiety sensitivity and its relationship to the menstrual cycle, PMS, and PMDD, anxiety-modulating effects of progesterone and its neuroactive metabolite, allopregnanolone, and how results from the neuroendocrine literature relate to psychopathology or symptoms associated with the menstrual cycle.

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Placing Premenstrual Syndrome in Perspective

Cited by 26 publications

References 23 publications

Mood and the Menstrual Cycle

Mood and the Menstrual Cycle

Anger and Locus of Control in Young Women with and without Premenstrual Syndrome

Anxiety sensitivity, the menstrual cycle, and panic disorder: A putative neuroendocrine and psychological interaction

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