Randomised trial, 2005
Does intermittent luteal phase medication help PMDD symptoms during the first days of menstruation?
Yes. Symptom improvement from luteal phase-only medication continued into the first 2-3 days of menstruation with similar benefit to continuous treatment, and abruptly stopping the medication did not cause withdrawal symptoms.
What they did
Symptom records from two previous studies with similar designs were compared. One used continuous sertraline 50-150 mg daily throughout the cycle, the other used intermittent sertraline 50-100 mg daily for 14-16 days before menstruation. Symptoms during the first 5 days of menstruation were compared between groups.
What they found
Improvement from baseline to treatment was similar for continuous versus luteal-only dosing on day 1 (effect size 0.73 vs 0.89), day 2 (0.40 vs 0.55), and day 3 (0.42 vs 0.44) of menstruation. Women who abruptly stopped sertraline had fewer withdrawal symptoms at day 3 (p less than 0.01) and no difference from placebo on days 4-5.
What it means for you
Luteal phase-only treatment works about as well as continuous treatment and does not cause withdrawal symptoms when stopped abruptly. This suggests women may not need to take medication throughout the month. Main limitations are the very small sample (5 women) and that this compares two older studies rather than a new controlled trial.
5
women analyzed
0.73-0.89
effect size on day 1 of menstruation
About the study
- Original title
- Luteal phase treatment of premenstrual dysphoric disorder improves symptoms that continue into the postmenstrual phase
- Authors
- Yonkers KA, Pearlstein T, Fayyad R et al.
- Journal
- Journal of affective disorders
- Year
- 2005
- Study design
- Randomised trial
- Participants
- 5
- What was tested
- Sertraline 50-100 mg during luteal phase only, compared to continuous dosing
- Read the paper
- doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2004.10.006
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