title: The relationship between mood, somatization, and alexithymia in premenstrual syndrome.
abstract: To examine the relationship between mood, somatization, and alexithymia in premenstrual syndrome (PMS), 66 women with a prospectively confirmed diagnosis of PMS were compared with a group of 49 non-PMS control women on a battery of self-administered tests measuring depression, anxiety, somatization, and alexithymia. Based on their scores on the Beck Depression Inventory, the PMS patients were subdivided into a high-depression and low-depression group and compared with the non-PMS control group on all test measures. Significantly greater somatization and alexithymia were reported in the high-depression PMS group, and no differences were found on any of the test measures between the low-depression PMS and non-PMS control groups.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Louisiana State University (LSU) Medical Center, New Orleans.
authors.forename: A R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Kuczmierczyk
authors.forename: A H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Labrum
authors.forename: C C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Johnson
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011293:Premenstrual Syndrome / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011594:Psychometrics; D013001:Somatoform Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*