Survey study, 2020
How common is PMDD in medical students?
About 11% of the 180 medical students studied had PMDD. The most common symptoms were fatigue, irritability, and mood swings.
What they did
A study of 180 female medical students. They rated their symptoms every day for 2 months. Researchers then interviewed them to confirm PMDD based on standard diagnostic criteria.
What they found
20 out of 180 students (11.11%) met the criteria for PMDD. The most common symptoms in those with PMDD were fatigue, irritability, and mood swings. The more severe someone's premenstrual and menstrual difficulties, the more likely they were to have PMDD.
What it means for you
PMDD affects roughly 1 in 9 medical students. However, this study is small and only includes medical students, so the results may not apply to other groups of women or the general population.
20
had PMDD
11.11%
prevalence of PMDD
2 months
duration of daily symptom tracking
About the study
- Original title
- A Study on the Prevalence of Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder in Medical Students
- Authors
- Charan Teja Koganti, Neeta Sagar Bobba
- Journal
- Academia Journal of Medicine
- Year
- 2020
- Study design
- Survey study
- Participants
- 20
- Open access
- Yes
- Read the paper
- doi.org/10.47008/ajm.2020.3.1.15
Original abstract
Background: Premenstrual dysphoric disorder is a common yet underdiagnosed mental health problem among women of reproductive age group with a significant potential to perturb the social, occupational, academic and interpersonal milieu of the suffering women. The aim of the study is to determine the frequency and severity of the premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) in medical college students. The premenstrual dysphoric disorder is a common yet underdiagnosed mental health problem among women of reproductive age group with a significant potential to perturb the social, occupational, academic and interpersonal milieu of the suffering women. Subjects and Methods: Premenstrual dysphoric disorder was diagnosed based on Penn’s daily symptom rating scale (self-administered for 2 months) and an interview-based on diagnostic and statistical manual -5 diagnostic criteria for the premenstrual dysphoric disorder. Results: Overall 180 subjects were studied. The prevalence of premenstrual dysphoric disorder was wound to be 11.11 % (n= 20). The most common symptoms found were fatigue irritability, mood swings and A significant correlation between the severity of premenstrual and menstrual difficulties was found with PMDD. Conclusion: The current study highlights the need for clinicians to assess for premenstrual dysphoric disorder in females visiting the hospital with premenstrual and menstrual complaints.
Reproduced under CC-BY.
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