Non-randomised trial, 2014
Does Vitex help PMS symptoms?
Yes, Vitex reduced PMS symptoms, with 91 percent of women improving by the third cycle. However, without a control group, we cannot be certain Vitex itself caused the improvement.
What they did
A single-arm study of 69 Japanese women with PMS who took 20 mg of Vitex extract once daily for three menstrual cycles and tracked ten PMS symptoms on a pain scale.
What they found
Symptom scores dropped significantly after the first cycle and continued decreasing. By the third cycle, 91.0 percent of women showed little or no symptoms. Eight women had minor adverse events.
What it means for you
Vitex appears to reduce PMS symptoms in Japanese women. However, this study had no control group to compare against, so we cannot be certain the improvement was due to the supplement itself rather than placebo or other factors.
69
Women treated
20 mg
Daily dose of Vitex
91.0%
With good improvement by cycle 3
About the study
- Original title
- Efficacy and safety of Vitex agnus-castus extract for treatment of premenstrual syndrome in Japanese patients: a prospective, open-label study
- Authors
- Momoeda M, Sasaki H, Tagashira E et al.
- Journal
- Advances in therapy
- Year
- 2014
- Study design
- Non-randomised trial
- Participants
- 3
- What was tested
- Prefemin (Vitex agnus-castus extract), 20 mg once daily.
- Read the paper
- doi.org/10.1007/s12325-014-0106-z
Topics
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