---
title: Does spironolactone help PMS symptoms? | Niyora
description: Yes. Spironolactone significantly reduced mood symptoms like irritability and depression, and physical symptoms like breast tenderness and bloating, compared
url: https://niyora.com/research/papers/treatment-of-premenstrual-syndrome-by-spironolactone-a-double-blind-placebo-1995/
---

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- Does spironolactone help PMS symptoms?

Randomised trial, 1995

# Does spironolactone help PMS symptoms?

Yes. Spironolactone significantly reduced mood symptoms like irritability and depression, and physical symptoms like breast tenderness and bloating, compared to placebo.

 Strong study design

35 women with PMS

## What they did

RCT with 35 women with PMS. They took either 100 mg spironolactone or placebo once daily from day 14 of their cycle until the first day of the next period. After observing two baseline cycles, they crossed over between active drug and placebo every 3 months for 6 months of treatment. They rated their symptoms daily on a validated scale.

## What they found

Spironolactone was associated with significant decrease in negative mood symptom scores (p less than 0.001) and somatic symptom scores (p less than 0.001). Individual improvements included irritability, depression, feeling of swelling, breast tenderness and food craving. Benefits continued even after switching from spironolactone to placebo.

## What it means for you

Spironolactone appears effective for both mood and physical PMS symptoms. The drug only needs to be taken in the luteal phase. The study used a strong design with double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover method, but involved only 35 women.

35

women with PMS

100 mg

daily spironolactone dose

6

months of treatment

## About the study

Original title Treatment of premenstrual syndrome by spironolactone: a double-blind, placebo-controlled study Authors Wang M, Hammarbäck S, Lindhe BA et al. Journal Acta obstetricia et gynecologica Scandinavica Year 1995 Study design Randomised trial What was tested 100 mg spironolactone or placebo daily from day 14 of cycle to menstruation Read the paper [doi.org/10.3109/00016349509021201](https://doi.org/10.3109/00016349509021201)

## Topics

[Premenstrual syndrome (PMS)](https://niyora.com/research/topics/condition-pms/)[Low mood and depression](https://niyora.com/research/topics/symptom-depression-mood/)[Bloating, breast tenderness and physical symptoms](https://niyora.com/research/topics/symptom-physical-symptoms/)[Diuretics and other drugs](https://niyora.com/research/topics/treatment-diuretics-other-drugs/)[Major depressive disorder](https://niyora.com/research/topics/comorbidity-major-depression/)

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

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