Cohort study, 1986
Can we tell women with PMS apart from women with mood disorders based on symptoms?
Not easily. Reported PMS symptoms alone cannot reliably identify women with diagnosed PMS. Women with mood disorders reported fewer PMS-like changes than expected from previous research.
What they did
Researchers compared reported PMS symptoms across five groups. Women with confirmed PMS, women without PMS, women with bipolar disorder, women with seasonal affective disorder, and healthy controls.
What they found
Reported symptoms did not distinguish women with confirmed PMS from those without PMS. Women with mood disorders reported fewer premenstrual changes than previous studies had suggested.
What it means for you
You cannot diagnose PMS by asking about symptoms alone. The connection between PMS and mood disorders is more complicated than just having more PMS symptoms. More research is needed to understand how to properly diagnose PMS.
About the study
- Original title
- Premenstrual changes: a comparison of five populations
- Authors
- Roy-Byrne PP, Rubinow DR, Hoban MC et al.
- Journal
- Psychiatry research
- Year
- 1986
- Study design
- Cohort study
- What was tested
- None (observational comparison)
- Read the paper
- doi.org/10.1016/0165-1781(86)90062-4
Topics
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