[Premenstrual syndrome: review of literature]

This is a comprehensive review of recent studies on premenstrual syndrome. The specific purpose of the present paper was to update major premenstrual syndrome related research/clinical issues in the following areas: nosographic validity, diagnostic reliability, clinical assessment, psychobiology, treatment progress. Increasing consensus has addressed the development of both performant assessment instruments and prospective clinical studies as well as careful psychobiologic investigation of the affective disorders/premenstrual syndrome crossroad as valuable directions for future studies. Such a research perspective is discussed in the light of the author's previous work in the field.