Symptom Patterns of Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder as Defined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders -IV

Premenstrual dysphoric disorder was included in an appendix of DSM-III-R (revised third edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) and DSM-IV to facilitate systematic research. Items contained in its set of research criteria were considered tentative. Only one previous study of premenstrual symptoms specifically addressed symptoms of premenstrual dysphoric disorder, and it did not use DSM-IV criteria. In the present study, prospectively measured symptoms of 99 women were analyzed using exploratory principal components analysis with orthogonal rotation on all 24 items derived from the 11 symptoms listed in DSM-IV. Variation was found across phases of cycle and groups, with five factors predominating: (1) anger/irritability, (2) depressed mood, (3) anxiety/tension, (4) decreased energy and interest with physical symptoms, and (5) eating problems.