Women with premenstrual dysphoric disorder do not recall aberrant parenting

Premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) is related to the affective disorders and thus is expected to share similar psychological risk factors. Depressed subjects have been found to recall lack of warmth and parental overcontrol in childhood as assessed by the Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI). The present study aimed to find out if such risk factors contributed to the development of PMDD in adulthood. Thirty-four women from South London who fulfilled rigorous criteria for PMDD and 22 controls were assessed for symptom severity, and each subject completed the PBI. All the women included in the study were free from other concurrent psychiatric disorders. Subjects with PMDD and controls had similar scores for warmth and parental overcontrol on the PBI and therefore had not been subject to more affectionless control. The PBI retained expected internal characteristics such as the inverse relationship of warmth and control scores. The findings indicate that recollection of parenting problems in childhood is not a major risk factor for subsequent development of PMDD in these women. A potential explanation for this is that PMDD is more biologically than psychosocially determined.