Premenstrual Hostility, Impulsivity and Impaired Social Functioning*

Abstract

The diversity of premenstrual changes (PMCs) has been increasingly recognized recently. Subtypes, unipolar features and bipolar dimensions of PMC were assessed with the newly developed Premenstrual Assessment Form (PAF) showing that various groups of subjects differ in the prevalence of reported changes.

We report results on 505 women who were recruited in a variety of ways. The prevalence of hostile features in our sample varied from 83% in a group of treatment-seeking women to 15% among a group of executives. Two groups of responders to mass-media publicity did not differ on the item of impaired social functioning — 91% and 92% reported these features compared to 14-45% of women in the other groups. 80% of treatment-seeking women met criteria for PAF impulsive syndrome compared to 12-40% of women in other groups. Only a few of the successful professional women complained of any of the above premenstrual syndromes. The prevalence of these syndromes among medical center's employees and student nurses was midway between the extremes.

The evaluation and documentation of the prevalence of hostility, irritability and impaired social functioning, among various groups of women, may be of heuristic value. The findings reported in this paper have methodological implications for studies of PMC and they shed some light on behavioral phenomena that recently attracted mass-media and professional attention.