Premenstrual changes: a comparison of five populations.

Area of Science:

• Psychiatry
• Reproductive Psychiatry
• Mood Disorders

Background:

• Premenstrual symptoms are often linked to major affective disorders.
• Previous research suggests a strong association between premenstrual syndrome and mood disorders.
• The diagnostic overlap and symptom reporting require further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the incidence of reported premenstrual symptoms in women with and without prospectively confirmed premenstrual syndrome (PMS).
• To compare symptom reporting in women with bipolar disorder or seasonal affective disorder (SAD) against controls and PMS groups.
• To evaluate the ability of reported symptoms to differentiate between PMS and other affective disorders.

Main Methods:

• Prospective confirmation of premenstrual syndrome in a subset of participants.
• Assessment of reported premenstrual symptoms across four groups: confirmed PMS, non-PMS, bipolar disorder/SAD, and controls.
• Comparative analysis of symptom prevalence and diagnostic utility.

Main Results:

• Reported premenstrual symptoms were unable to reliably differentiate women with and without confirmed premenstrual syndrome.
• The prevalence of reported premenstrual changes in women with affective disorders was lower than anticipated based on prior studies.
• Significant overlap in symptom reporting was observed between groups.

Conclusions:

• Self-reported premenstrual symptoms alone are insufficient for diagnosing premenstrual syndrome, especially in the context of other affective disorders.
• The relationship between premenstrual changes and major affective disorders may be less pronounced than previously suggested.
• Further research is needed to clarify the complex interplay between mood disorders and premenstrual symptomatology.