Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that women with premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) complain of irritability, anger, tension, marked depressed mood, mood lability, lethargy, sleep disturbance, limited concentration and many physical symptoms to such a degree of severity that their quality-of-life is seriously compromised. The author points out that inhibitors of serotonin reuptake, fluoxetine (Sarafem), may be an effective therapy. The paper states that PMS and PMDD are far more common in a woman's later years of fertility because these syndromes are caused by the lower estrogen levels and higher progesterone levels found more commonly in the latter half of a woman's reproductive life.

Table of Contents
Introduction
History and Background of PMS/PMDD
History
Inheritance and Relationship to Other Disorders
Cultural Aspects
The American Medical Association's Point of View
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"Rubinow and Schmidt note that unlike mood disorders associated with the abnormal function of other endocrine glands (e.g., the adrenal or thyroid glands), PMS occurs in the context of normal ovarian function. The question then is why different women have different responses to what is ostensibly the same stimulus. This question is central to understanding behavior and is currently best addressed by studies in animals. Pharmacologic sensitization, kindling, and conditioning provide experimental models in which both the biologic and behavioral responses to a given stimulus are profoundly altered and determined by past experience with the stimulus. In these models, a stimulus that originally produces little or no effect may change the biologic substrate in a way that dramatically increases the severity of behavioral effects, purely as a function of repetition and the passage of time. Although the relevance of these models to PMS is uncertain, it is noteworthy that PMS is most frequently observed more than a decade after the initiation of ovarian cyclicity."

More papers on Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder:

• Essay # 68223 : "Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD)"
• Research Paper # 97239 : "Dissociative Identity Disorder"
• Research Paper # 72678 : "Conduct Disorder and Antisocial Disorder"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: