Survey study, 2014
Is PMS linked to difficulty identifying and describing emotions?
Women with PMS scored higher on measures of alexithymia, which means difficulty recognizing and expressing emotions. The study could not determine whether this causes PMS or results from it.
What they did
308 Turkish university students completed a demographic questionnaire, the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (measuring difficulty with emotions), and a premenstrual assessment form. Researchers compared scores between those with and without PMS.
What they found
66.6% had PMS. Students with PMS scored higher on all three components of alexithymia: difficulty identifying feelings, difficulty describing feelings, and externally oriented thinking (p less than 0.05). Alexithymic students scored higher on all PMS symptom measures (p less than or equal to 0.001). Having a history of psychiatric treatment or smoking habit increased PMS risk (p less than 0.05).
What it means for you
Women with PMS may struggle more with recognizing and expressing emotions. Because this was a cross-sectional study, we cannot determine if difficulty with emotions causes PMS, results from it, or if both are caused by something else. The study only included university students.
66.6%
had PMS
308
students
About the study
- Original title
- Association between premenstrual syndrome and alexithymia among Turkish University students
- Authors
- Alpaslan AH, Avcı K, Soylu N et al.
- Journal
- Gynecological endocrinology : the official journal of the International Society of Gynecological Endocrinology
- Year
- 2014
- Study design
- Survey study
- Participants
- 308
- What was tested
- None
- Read the paper
- doi.org/10.3109/09513590.2014.887066
Topics
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