Systematic review, 1995
What medications work best to treat premenstrual dysphoric disorder?
Several types of medication show promise for treating PMDD, but there is not strong evidence yet for which works best because studies used different methods and measurements. More standardized research is needed to say which treatments help most.
What they did
A systematic review of all studies written in English about premenstrual treatments published over 30 years. The reviewers focused on double-blind studies where patients were diagnosed before treatment started.
What they found
More than 300 articles were found, but only about one-third described double-blind studies. Just 41 of those double-blind studies involved patients who were prospectively diagnosed. Many different medications were tested, but the studies could not be compared directly because they measured results differently and did not all check for other mental health conditions that could affect how people respond to drugs.
What it means for you
Although some medications may help PMDD, we cannot yet say which ones work best for which symptoms. The main limit is that studies were too different from each other to compare. Research needs to use the same definitions and measurement methods so that results can be compared across studies.
300+
Articles retrieved
41
Double-blind studies with prospectively diagnosed patients
1/3
Proportion that were double-blind studies
About the study
- Original title
- Pharmacological management of premenstrual disorder
- Authors
- Altshuler LL, Hendrick V, Parry B
- Journal
- Harvard review of psychiatry
- Year
- 1995
- Study design
- Systematic review
- What was tested
- Various medications for premenstrual disorders
- Read the paper
- doi.org/10.3109/10673229509017143
Topics
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