Randomised trial, 1995
Does spironolactone help PMS symptoms?
Yes. Spironolactone significantly reduced mood symptoms like irritability and depression, and physical symptoms like breast tenderness and bloating, compared to placebo.
What they did
RCT with 35 women with PMS. They took either 100 mg spironolactone or placebo once daily from day 14 of their cycle until the first day of the next period. After observing two baseline cycles, they crossed over between active drug and placebo every 3 months for 6 months of treatment. They rated their symptoms daily on a validated scale.
What they found
Spironolactone was associated with significant decrease in negative mood symptom scores (p less than 0.001) and somatic symptom scores (p less than 0.001). Individual improvements included irritability, depression, feeling of swelling, breast tenderness and food craving. Benefits continued even after switching from spironolactone to placebo.
What it means for you
Spironolactone appears effective for both mood and physical PMS symptoms. The drug only needs to be taken in the luteal phase. The study used a strong design with double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover method, but involved only 35 women.
35
women with PMS
100 mg
daily spironolactone dose
6
months of treatment
About the study
- Original title
- Treatment of premenstrual syndrome by spironolactone: a double-blind, placebo-controlled study
- Authors
- Wang M, Hammarbäck S, Lindhe BA et al.
- Journal
- Acta obstetricia et gynecologica Scandinavica
- Year
- 1995
- Study design
- Randomised trial
- What was tested
- 100 mg spironolactone or placebo daily from day 14 of cycle to menstruation
- Read the paper
- doi.org/10.3109/00016349509021201
Topics
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