Psychological factors and premenstrual syndrome: A Spanish case-control study

Abstract

Objective To assess whether the psychological variables perceived stress, neuroticism and coping strategies, are associated with Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS) and Premenstrual Dysphoric Syndrome (PMDD). Design Case-control study with incident cases using the Spanish public healthcare system. Setting 3 major public hospitals and one family counseling and planning center. Population Women consulting for troubles related to menstruation and for other motives such as screening for uterine cancer, contraception counselling or desire for pregnancy. Methods Logistic regression. Main outcome measures Odds of PMS and PMDD. Results 285 PMS and 285 age-matched controls, as well as 88 PMDD cases and 176 controls participated in the study. Medium and high levels of perceived stress were associated with an increase in the odds of PMS (Odds Ratio (OR) = 2.49; 95%CI: 1.41–4.39 and OR = 4.90; 95%CI: 2.70–8.89, respectively). For PMDD the results were: OR = 2.61; 95%CI: 1.35–5.05 and OR = 5.79; 95%CI: 2.63–12.76, respectively. Subjects with medium and high levels of neuroticism were also at higher odds of suffering from PMS (OR = 2.53; 95%CI: 1.06–6.06 and OR = 8.05; 95%CI: 3.07–2.12, respectively). For PMDD, the results were OR = 3.70; 95%CI: 1.27–10.77 and 5.73: 95%CI: 1.96–16.77, respectively. High levels in the large majority of coping strategies were also associated with increased odds of PMS and PMDD. Conclusions Psychological factors including perceived stress, neuroticism and coping strategies are strongly related to PMS/PMDD. This association is unlikely to be due to confounding or misclassification bias. A reverse causation process cannot be ruled out although its likelihood is remote.

Magnitude of premenstrual dysphoric disorder and its correlation with academic performance among female medical and health science students at University of Gondar, Ethiopia, 2019: a cross-sectional study

“…Premenstrual symptoms like anger and irritability may be associated with stress-related premenstrual decline in brain serotonin function, resulting in the worsening of cardinal mood symptoms. 50 This was in agreement with other studies conducted in Spain, 51 Iowa in the USA 52 53 and India. 54 …”

A potential relation between premenstrual symptoms and subjective perception of health and stress among college students: a cross-sectional study

“…The present study demonstrates that negative subjective perception of health is significantly related to premenstrual symptomatic features, including its prevalence, type, and severity, in college students. As substantial evidence from earlier PMS research has shown [2, 15–19], this study also clarified that self-rating stress strongly relates to premenstrual symptomatology as assessed by MDQ scores. We further revealed that the 19 women who evaluated themselves as “unhealthy and stressed” had greater prevalence of severe or extremely severe premenstrual complaints consisting of general aches and pains, confusion, lowered school or work performance, decreased efficiency, loneliness, anxiety, restlessness, mood swings, and depression.…”

“…We performed multiple linear regression analysis with stepwise selection to determine how well the combination of the seven independent variables (age, BMI, subjective perception of health, self-rating stress, regular exercise habits, breakfast eating habits, and sleep duration) explains the variance in the MDQ total scores. We should mention that, referring to previous studies [2, 5, 15–25], these seven variables were selected as potential factors that may be related to the premenstrual-symptom constellation. As Table 4 shows, multivariable analysis revealed subjective perception of health (β = 0.28; p < 0.001) and self-rating stress (β = 0.18; p = 0.008) as the factors most strongly related to the severity of premenstrual symptoms evaluated by the MDQ total scores.…”

“…We assessed subjective perception of health with the question: “What do you think about your current health status?” (“very healthy,” “healthy,” “unhealthy,” or “very unhealthy”). Earlier research revealed that perceived stress has significant effects on increased premenstrual complaints [2, 15–19]. Thus, this study also assessed self-rating of stress among the participants by asking: “How would you rate your current stress level?” (“non-stressful,” “slightly stressful,” “stressful,” or “very stressful”).…”

<p>Psychometric Testing of the Premenstrual Symptoms Questionnaire and the Association Between Perceived Injustice and Premenstrual Symptoms: A Cross-Sectional Study Among Japanese High School Students</p>

“…[7][8][9] Perceived stress, neuroticism, and coping strategies have been reported to be strongly related to PMDs. 10 Perceived injustice is a belief linked to unfair treatment and unnecessary suffering caused by illness. 11 Perceived injustice has been extensively analyzed among people with chronic pain, including those with whiplash, fibromyalgia, and osteoarthritis.…”