Case-control study, 1993
Do women with both anxiety disorder and PMS have worse anxiety, and does the menstrual cycle affect it?
Women with both anxiety disorder and PMS had worse symptoms in both menstrual phases, with clear worsening premenstrually. Even when assessed once, their ratings were influenced by how bad they felt premenstrually.
What they did
Case-control study. 41 women with both anxiety disorder and PMS were assessed during premenstrual and follicular phases. They were compared to 21 women with anxiety disorder only and 19 controls. The latter two groups were assessed once in the standard manner.
What they found
Women with both anxiety disorder and PMS had worse symptoms than controls in both menstrual phases. Symptoms were worse in the premenstrual phase than the follicular phase. How women with both conditions felt premenstrually influenced their overall symptom ratings, even when assessed in the standard one-time way.
What it means for you
Having both anxiety disorder and PMS makes anxiety worse, especially before your period. When doctors assess anxiety in women with both conditions, they need to account for menstrual effects because one-time ratings may be heavily influenced by how severe symptoms are premenstrually. Small sample size.
41
women with anxiety disorder and PMS
21
women with anxiety disorder only
19
controls
About the study
- Original title
- The influence of premenstrual syndrome on ratings of anxiety in women with generalized anxiety disorder
- Authors
- McLeod DR, Hoehn-Saric R, Foster GV et al.
- Journal
- Acta psychiatrica Scandinavica
- Year
- 1993
- Study design
- Case-control study
- Participants
- 41
- What was tested
- None
- Read the paper
- doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0447.1993.tb03451.x
Topics
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