Cohort study, 1999
Do women with PMS have a higher risk of depression later in life?
In a 5 to 12 year follow-up study, women with PMS had a nonsignificantly higher rate of new depression, but this difference disappeared when comparing only women who had no prior depression history, suggesting prior depression rather than PMS drives the risk.
What they did
Researchers followed 27 women with documented PMS and 21 control women without PMS for 5 to 12 years. At follow-up, they conducted structured interviews about depression. A smaller group of 7 PMS patients and 11 controls completed daily symptom tracking for 2 months.
What they found
Women with PMS had a nonsignificantly higher incidence of new depression during follow-up than controls. When looking at women without prior depression, the difference disappeared. Daily ratings confirmed the original PMS diagnoses in the tracked group.
What it means for you
Women with PMS who later develop depression may be developing it because of their baseline depression risk, not because PMS causes depression. The study is small and preliminary, particularly for the prospective tracking portion. More research is needed.
27
PMS patients followed
21
control women
5-12 years
follow-up period
About the study
- Original title
- A follow-up study of premenstrual syndrome
- Authors
- Roca CA, Schmidt PJ, Rubinow DR
- Journal
- The Journal of clinical psychiatry
- Year
- 1999
- Study design
- Cohort study
- Participants
- 27
- What was tested
- None (observational follow-up only)
- Read the paper
- doi.org/10.4088/jcp.v60n1108
Topics
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