---
title: Does the point in your menstrual cycle change your mood, or change how alcohol affects your mood?
description: No. This study found no evidence that mood or alcohol's effects on mood differed across menstrual cycle phases, suggesting cycle-linked mood swings may be mor
url: https://niyora.com/research/papers/mood-effects-of-alcohol-and-expectancies-across-the-menstrual-cycle-1993/
---

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- Does the point in your menstrual cycle change your mood, or change how alcohol affects your mood?

Randomised trial, 1993

# Does the point in your menstrual cycle change your mood, or change how alcohol affects your mood?

No. This study found no evidence that mood or alcohol's effects on mood differed across menstrual cycle phases, suggesting cycle-linked mood swings may be more about expectations than biology, at least in this drinking context.

 Moderate study design

96 women who were heavy drinkers, studied at different menstrual cycle phases

## What they did

96 women who were heavy drinkers were randomly split into 12 groups to separate out the effects of alcohol itself, what people expected alcohol to do, and menstrual cycle phase. The alcohol groups drank enough to raise their blood alcohol to .07 mg %. Mood was measured with a standard mood questionnaire before and after drinking.

## What they found

Mood did not differ across menstrual cycle phases at baseline. The only mood changes were a Beverage by Trials interaction on the Vigor and Confusion scales, and a main effect of trials (time) on the Tension-Anxiety and Vigor scales. Peak intoxication level also did not differ across cycle phases.

## What it means for you

The results support the idea that mood changes often blamed on the menstrual cycle may instead be socially learned expectations, not a direct biological effect, at least for this group and this type of study. The main limits are that everyone studied was a heavy drinker and didn't know the true purpose of the study, so results may not apply to women generally or to everyday PMS.

96

women studied

12

study groups

.07 mg %

target blood alcohol level

## About the study

Original title Mood effects of alcohol and expectancies across the menstrual cycle Authors Freitag WJ, Adesso VJ Journal Alcohol (Fayetteville, N.Y.) Year 1993 Study design Randomised trial Participants 96 What was tested Alcohol (raised blood alcohol to .07 mg %) vs none, plus different expectations, across cycle phases Read the paper [doi.org/10.1016/0741-8329(93)90008-c](https://doi.org/10.1016/0741-8329(93)90008-c)

## Topics

[Menstrual cycle and mood](https://niyora.com/research/topics/condition-cycle-mood/)[Anxiety and tension](https://niyora.com/research/topics/symptom-anxiety/)[Alcohol, smoking and substance use](https://niyora.com/research/topics/comorbidity-substance-use/)

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