VULNERABILITY TO PERIMENSTRUAL MOOD CHANGE - THE RELEVANCE OF A PAST HISTORY OF DEPRESSIVE DISORDER

A past history of depressive illness, defined in terms of treatment by antidepressants, was found to be more common in women seeking help fo r premenstrual syndrome (PMS) (31.3%; N = 83) than in women complainin g of menorrhagia (8.9%; N = 90) or controls (5.8%; N = 104) with dysme norrhea sufferers (22%; N = 50) reporting intermediate rates. Such a h istory in the clinical groups was associated with a tendency for preme nstrual depression to be relatively prolonged (i.e., persisting throug h the menstrual phase and sometimes into the postmenstrual week) and w ith more severe depressive symptoms during the premenstrual, menstrual , and to a lesser extent, postmenstrual phases of the cycle. This asso ciation was not evident for reported heaviness of menstrual bleeding a nd only weakly evident for severity of pain during the menstrual phase . Women with a depressive history gave higher neuroticism scores. A hi story of depression, as defined, seems to increase the vulnerability o f women to depressive perimenstrual mood change in terms of both durat ion and severity. This effect on duration may hitherto have served to obscure the relationship between history of depression and premenstrua l syndrome.