Lab study, 2017
Do women with PMS process emotions differently?
Yes. Women with PMS are slower to respond to emotional pictures and faces during their premenstrual phase, compared to women without PMS.
What they did
They recruited 55 women with confirmed PMS and 55 women without, identified through screening and two months of daily records. All completed attention tasks during their follicular and premenstrual phases. The tasks showed words, pictures, and faces and measured how quickly women could respond when emotional content was distracting.
What they found
Women with PMS showed greater difficulty (slower response) to emotional pictures and faces during their premenstrual phase compared to the control group. With faces, they also showed an unexpected faster response in one specific test. No difference was found for word-based tasks. The differences were mainly in the premenstrual phase, not the follicular phase.
What it means for you
Women with PMS may process emotions and faces differently during their premenstrual phase. This suggests PMS affects emotional signal handling. The study used symptom records rather than hormone testing to identify cycle phases, limiting causal conclusions. Sample size was moderate.
55
Women with PMS
55
Control women
About the study
- Original title
- Emotional interference and attentional processing in premenstrual syndrome
- Authors
- Eggert L, Kleinstäuber M, Hiller W et al.
- Journal
- Journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry
- Year
- 2017
- Study design
- Lab study
- Participants
- 55
- What was tested
- Emotional attention tasks using words, pictures, and faces.
- Read the paper
- doi.org/10.1016/j.jbtep.2016.07.002
Topics
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