Trend analysis of the symptoms of 150 women with a history of the premenstrual syndrome.

The daily symptom records of 150 untreated women with a convincing history of the premenstrual syndrome were investigated qualitatively and quantitatively by means of time series analysis in the form of Trigg's technique for trends. Symptoms were monitored with use of a modified menstrual distress questionnaire. Analysis showed that, depending on the symptom cluster, 60.7% to 85.3% of the women showed symptom trends consistent with the syndrome, 14.0% to 35.3% had trends not typical of the syndrome, and in 0% to 5.3% of records significant trends were absent. Since over 80% of the women were found to have premenstrual syndrome trends for three or more of the six symptom clusters studied, including 32% who showed this trend pattern for all symptoms, a retrospective history of premenstrual syndrome is likely to be confirmed on prospective assessment for at least some symptoms. Quantitatively women who fulfilled the diagnostic criteria for premenstrual syndrome differed from those who did not by exhibiting significantly greater exacerbation of symptoms premenstrually and lesser morbidity postmenstrually. While water retention, negative affect, and pain were the three symptom clusters associated with the most severe ratings, the majority of women suffered from a mixture of physical, psychological, and behavioral complaints, and it was not possible to subdivide the study group by the type of symptoms.