---
title: Can a combination of behavioral treatments help severe premenstrual syndrome?
description: Yes. One woman receiving behavioral therapy reported significantly less distress from PMS and missed less work, with improvements lasting nine months.
url: https://niyora.com/research/papers/multi-component-behavioral-treatment-of-premenstrual-syndrome-a-case-report-1989/
---

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- Can a combination of behavioral treatments help severe premenstrual syndrome?

Case report, 1989

# Can a combination of behavioral treatments help severe premenstrual syndrome?

Yes. One woman receiving behavioral therapy reported significantly less distress from PMS and missed less work, with improvements lasting nine months.

 Early or limited evidence

One 36-year-old woman with severe premenstrual syndrome.

## What they did

Researchers treated one 36-year-old woman with severe PMS using a combined approach. Treatment included relaxation training, stress inoculation training, assertiveness training, marital therapy, and prescribed exercise over 9 weeks.

## What they found

After 9 weeks of treatment the woman reported significantly less premenstrual distress and less sick leave each month. These improvements continued at the 3 month and 9 month follow-up visits.

## What it means for you

This suggests a combined behavioral approach may help some women with severe PMS. The limit is that this is one case without a control group, so we cannot know if the improvement was from the treatment or other factors.

9 weeks

treatment duration

3 months

first follow-up

9 months

second follow-up

## About the study

Original title Multi-component behavioral treatment of premenstrual syndrome: a case report Authors Kuczmierczyk AR Journal Journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry Year 1989 Study design Case report What was tested Multi-component behavioral treatment: relaxation, stress inoculation, assertiveness training, marital therapy, and exercise. Read the paper [doi.org/10.1016/0005-7916(89)90028-1](https://doi.org/10.1016/0005-7916(89)90028-1)

## Topics

[Premenstrual syndrome (PMS)](https://niyora.com/research/topics/condition-pms/)

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