title: Determinants of emotional distress in women with polycystic ovary syndrome.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The goals were to analyse the incidence of mental distress in women with untreated polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) using self-report measures, to characterize PCOS patients at risk for psychiatric disease with regard to sociodemographic and clinical characteristics, and to assess the impact of emotional distress on quality of life.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Complete metabolic, hormonal, clinical and self-report psychological data [emotional distress, Symptom Check List 90 (SCL-90-R); quality of life, Short-Form Health Survey 36 (SF-36); sexual satisfaction, visual analogue scales; sociodemographic data] were obtained from n = 143 untreated women with PCOS. Prior psychiatric diagnoses were exclusionary. Twenty-two patients (15.4%) had a possible psychological disorder, based on SCL-90-R global severity index (GSI) scores > or =63 (SCL cases). SCL cases had significantly elevated body mass index (BMI), but did not differ from SCL non-cases in other clinical, endocrine, metabolic or sociodemographic variables. Stepwise multiple regression analyses identified GSI as a significant predictor of SF-36 Psychological Sum score, along with age and current wish to conceive (R2 = 0.47); the SF-36 Physical Sum score was predicted by BMI and education (R2 = 0.27), but not GSI.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Psychiatric illness may go undetected in a proportion of PCOS patients. Although the majority of patients exhibit subclinical levels of psychological disturbances, emotional distress together with obesity lead to large decrements in quality of life in PCOS.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Psychology, Endokrinologikum Ruhr, Center for Endocrine and Metabolic Diseases, Bochum, Germany. sigrid.elsenbruch@uni-essen.de
authors.forename: Sigrid
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Elsenbruch
authors.forename: Sven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Benson
authors.forename: Susanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hahn
authors.forename: Susanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.forename: Klaus
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mann
authors.forename: Katja
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Pleger
authors.forename: Rainer
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kimmig
authors.forename: Onno E
authors.initials: OE
authors.lastname: Janssen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D003710:Demography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D011085:Polycystic Ovary Syndrome / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology*; D011788:Quality of Life; D012044:Regression Analysis; D019529:Sexuality / Q000523:psychology; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology*