--- title: Does painful menstruation affect adolescent girls' mood, emotions, sleep, and thinking? description: Yes. Girls with painful periods had higher depression, aggression, and sleep problems compared to girls without painful periods. However, thinking ability was url: https://niyora.com/research/papers/neuropsychological-function-in-relation-to-dysmenorrhea-in-adolescents-2017/ --- - [Niyora](https://niyora.com/) - [Research](https://niyora.com/research/) - [Library](https://niyora.com/research/library/) - Does painful menstruation affect adolescent girls' mood, emotions, sleep, and thinking? Survey study, 2017 # Does painful menstruation affect adolescent girls' mood, emotions, sleep, and thinking? Yes. Girls with painful periods had higher depression, aggression, and sleep problems compared to girls without painful periods. However, thinking ability was not affected. Girls with only PMS (without pain) were similar to girls without either condition. Moderate study design 897 adolescent girls ## What they did Cross-sectional study of 897 adolescent girls. Girls were divided into four groups based on whether they had painful periods (dysmenorrhea), PMS, both conditions, or neither. Researchers tested thinking ability, emotional function, and sleep patterns. ## What they found 35.9% had painful periods only, 14.9% had only PMS, 32.7% had both, and 16.5% had neither. Girls with painful periods had significantly higher depression, aggression, insomnia, daytime sleepiness, and sleep apnea compared to girls without painful periods. Thinking ability did not differ. These differences were strongly linked to pain intensity. ## What it means for you Painful periods are associated with mood and sleep problems in adolescent girls, suggesting pain is the key factor rather than hormones alone. The main limit is this is observational, so we cannot prove pain causes the emotional problems. The study location is not specified. 897 girls studied 35.9% had painful periods only 32.7% had both painful periods and PMS ## About the study Original title Neuropsychological function in relation to dysmenorrhea in adolescents Authors Bahrami A, Sadeghnia H, Avan A et al. Journal European journal of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive biology Year 2017 Study design Survey study Participants 897 What was tested None Read the paper [doi.org/10.1016/j.ejogrb.2017.06.030](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejogrb.2017.06.030) ## Topics [Premenstrual syndrome (PMS)](https://niyora.com/research/topics/condition-pms/)[Menstrual cycle and mood](https://niyora.com/research/topics/condition-cycle-mood/)[Dysmenorrhea and period pain](https://niyora.com/research/topics/condition-dysmenorrhea/)[Low mood and depression](https://niyora.com/research/topics/symptom-depression-mood/)[Irritability and anger](https://niyora.com/research/topics/symptom-irritability-anger/)[Sleep and insomnia](https://niyora.com/research/topics/symptom-sleep/)[Cognition, concentration and memory](https://niyora.com/research/topics/symptom-cognition/)[Pain and headache](https://niyora.com/research/topics/symptom-pain/)[Adolescents and young people](https://niyora.com/research/topics/life-area-adolescents/) Research tells you what helps on average. Niyora helps on the day it hits. Calm down, see it another way, and decide what to say, with a PMS and PMDD app built by a doctor. ## Related studies Cohort study, 2025 How common is PMS in Chinese teenage girls, and what factors are linked to it? Survey study, 2025 Do menstrual problems and poor sleep affect mood and thinking in teenage girls? Survey study, 2023 How common are PMS and PMDD among college girls, and what are their symptoms? Survey study, 2022 How common is PMS in university students and what helps them cope with symptoms? Case-control study, 2006 Do women with IBS and period pain have worse symptoms? Survey study, 1964 How common are mood and physical changes around menstruation? Ask AI about this page Copy prompt ChatGPT ↗ Claude ↗ Perplexity ↗ Google AI Mode ↗ Grok ↗