Study, 2025
Does difficulty managing emotions make menstrual mood symptoms worse?
Yes. Women who struggled to manage their emotions had higher anxiety and sadness during the days right before and at the start of their period, and experienced stronger urges to smoke when they felt sadder during this time.
What they did
50 women who smoke daily tracked their daily anxiety, mood, and urges to smoke along with their menstrual cycle over several weeks. Researchers measured at the start how easily each woman could manage her emotions. They compared emotional distress during the 7 days before a period and the first 3 days of bleeding against other times of the month.
What they found
Women with more difficulty managing emotions experienced higher anxiety and sadness during the days right before and at the start of their period. When these women felt sadder on these days, they reported stronger urges to smoke. This connection between sadness and urges to smoke only appeared strongly in women who struggled with emotion regulation.
What it means for you
If you find it hard to manage emotions, your mood symptoms around menstruation may be more severe and your urges to smoke may be stronger at these times. This study only looked at women who smoke daily, so the pattern might differ in others. The study did not test any treatments, so we cannot yet say what might help.
50
Women studied
32.3
Average age in years
10
Days in the perimenstrual window (7 before period plus 3 during)
About the study
- Original title
- Difficulties with emotion regulation amplify perimenstrual emotional distress and cigarette craving
- Authors
- Farris SG, DiBello AM, Altman BR et al.
- Journal
- Psychology of addictive behaviors : journal of the Society of Psychologists in Addictive Behaviors
- Year
- 2025
- Study design
- Study
- Participants
- 50
- What was tested
- None (observational tracking)
- Open access
- Yes
- Read the paper
- doi.org/10.1037/adb0001065
Topics
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