To examine the relationship between mood, somatization, and alexithymi
a in premenstrual syndrome (PMS), 66 women with a prospectively confir
med diagnosis of PMS were compared with a group of 49 non-PMS control
women on a battery of self-administered tests measuring depression, an
xiety, somatization, and alexithymia. Based on their scores on the Bec
k Depression Inventory, the PMS patients were subdivided into a high-d
epression and low-depression group and compared with the non-PMS contr
ol group on all test measures. Significantly greater somatization and
alexithymia were reported in the high-depression PMS group, and no dif
ferences were found on any of the test measures between the low-depres
sion PMS and non-PMS control groups.