Psychological profiles of women complaining of premenstrual symptoms

Summary

A preliminary report is given of an approach to clarifying the relationship in women attending their general practitioners between neurotic symptoms and their premenstrual status. The findings showed that there were as many women complaining of pre-menstrual symptoms who were psychologically healthy as there were of those who were psychologically disturbed. Few women who complained of psychological difficulties were free of premenstrual symptoms. Approximately 75 % of a general practice sample of 521 women complained of at least one premenstrual symptom. Further analysis will be directed at analysing the premenstrual responses in some detail and exploring their relationship with psychiatric, social, and in some cases, hormonal variables.

Key Words::

• Premenstrual tension
• psychological tests