Survey study, 2018
Do difficulties handling emotions affect premenstrual symptom severity?
Yes. Women who act impulsively when upset had worse premenstrual symptoms. Women who ruminate (think repetitively about problems) had symptoms that increased faster before their period and improved more slowly afterward.
What they did
Study of 54 women with menstrually related mood disorders (average age 38). They completed questionnaires measuring emotion regulation difficulties and rumination, then reported symptoms daily for 2-4 menstrual cycles.
What they found
Emotion-related impulsivity was linked to worse premenstrual symptom severity. Rumination predicted that symptoms increased more rapidly before menstruation and improved more slowly after menstruation began.
What it means for you
How women handle emotions may be an important treatment target to reduce symptom severity and cyclical patterns. The main limits are the small sample (54 women) and the observational design, so we cannot prove emotions cause the symptoms.
54
women studied
38 years
mean age
2-4
menstrual cycles tracked per woman
About the study
- Original title
- Emotion-related impulsivity and rumination predict the perimenstrual severity and trajectory of symptoms in women with a menstrually related mood disorder
- Authors
- Dawson DN, Eisenlohr-Moul TA, Paulson JL et al.
- Journal
- Journal of clinical psychology
- Year
- 2018
- Study design
- Survey study
- Participants
- 54
- What was tested
- None
- Open access
- Yes
- Read the paper
- doi.org/10.1002/jclp.22522
Topics
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