Survey study, 2008
Do healthy women without PMDD have mood changes during their menstrual cycle?
Yes, but the changes are small. Healthy women without PMDD showed small increases in anxiety, depression, and other negative mood symptoms from late follicular to late luteal phase.
What they did
63 healthy women without PMDD completed daily symptom tracking for 3 cycles and mood questionnaires. Women were grouped by whether they had at least 66% increase in physical symptoms from late follicular to late luteal phase.
What they found
Significant increases in state anxiety, anxiety, somatization, depression, obsessive-compulsive symptoms, interpersonal sensitivity, and total distress from late follicular to late luteal phase. The increase in somatization and depression was larger in women with luteal phase physical symptoms. However, the actual magnitude of these increases was small and may not have direct clinical significance.
What it means for you
Even healthy women without PMDD experience small increases in anxiety and depression symptoms before their period, especially if they have premenstrual physical symptoms. However, the actual size of mood changes is small and may not matter much in everyday life. The main limitation is that this only studied healthy women without PMDD.
63
healthy women without PMDD
3
menstrual cycles tracked
66%
symptom increase threshold for LPPS group
About the study
- Original title
- Patterns of mood changes throughout the reproductive cycle in healthy women without premenstrual dysphoric disorders
- Authors
- Gonda X, Telek T, Juhász G et al.
- Journal
- Progress in neuro-psychopharmacology & biological psychiatry
- Year
- 2008
- Study design
- Survey study
- What was tested
- None (observational)
- Read the paper
- doi.org/10.1016/j.pnpbp.2008.07.016
Topics
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