PERSONALITY-FACTORS IN WOMEN WITH PREMENSTRUAL-SYNDROME

The recently developed Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire (TPQ) was used to examine personality correlates in women diagnosed with pre menstrual syndrome (PMS), The hypotheses were that the TPQ scores, spe cifically harm avoidance (HA), would be higher in PMS subjects than in the general population but lower than in depressed populations becaus e major mood disorder is an exclusion from the PMS diagnosis; harm avo idance would have the strongest association with PMS, but other TPQ fa ctors might characterize nondysphoric subgroups in the PMS population. The sample included 157 women who sought medical treatment and met cl early defined criteria for PMS. Two comparison groups of age-matched w omen with major depression (MDD, N = 20) and premenstrual exacerbation of major depression (MDD+PMS, N = 24) were also evaluated. TPQ scores were significantly higher for PMS subjects on all three dimensions co mpared with external normative TPQ data. The TPQ dimensions of HA and novelty seeking (NS) were modestly correlated with the premenstrual sy mptom scores. The HA dimension correlated with premenstrual depression and physical aches; high NS scores correlated with premenstrual food cravings, headache, and mood swings. As hypothesized, the HA scores we re significantly higher in the comparison groups diagnosed with major depression; the NS and reward dependence (RD) dimensions did not diffe r between the PMS and MDD groups. PMS was associated with only modest nonnormative personality correlates, as assessed by the TPQ. Elevation s of the HA and NS dimensions were associated with a tendency for the PMS to present with specific symptom patterns: depressive symptoms for the HA factor and food cravings and mood swings for the NS factor. Fu rther research employing other assessment methods is needed to confirm these findings.