Cohort study, 2001
How common are premenstrual mood symptoms like irritability and tension in women?
In this community study, about 1 in 5 women had moderate or severe perimenstrual psychological symptoms, and irritability, nervousness and tension stood out as the core symptoms, whether or not depressed mood was also present.
What they did
Researchers followed a representative community sample of 299 women, interviewing them five times as they aged from 21 to 35. At each interview they assessed premenstrual and menstrual physical and psychological symptoms.
What they found
8.1% of women had severe perimenstrual syndrome (PERI-MS) and 13.6% had moderate PERI-MS. Women with PERI-MS who also had depressed mood showed greater severity on all clinical indicators than those without depressed mood.
What it means for you
Irritability, nervousness and tension seem to be the central features of perimenstrual syndrome, regardless of whether depressed mood is also present. This is an observational study with no treatment tested and no control group, so it describes how common symptoms are rather than what causes or fixes them.
8.1%
Women with severe perimenstrual syndrome
13.6%
Women with moderate perimenstrual syndrome
N=299
Women in the study
About the study
- Original title
- The epidemiology of perimenstrual psychological symptoms
- Authors
- Angst J, Sellaro R, Merikangas KR et al.
- Journal
- Acta psychiatrica Scandinavica
- Year
- 2001
- Study design
- Cohort study
- Participants
- 299
- What was tested
- None tested; this was an observational study measuring how common premenstrual and menstrual symptoms were.
- Open access
- Yes
- Read the paper
- doi.org/10.1034/j.1600-0447.2001.00412.x
Topics
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