Psychosomatic Medicine, Vol 51, Issue 3 319-328, Copyright © 1989 by American Psychosomatic Society

ORIGINAL ARTICLES

Psychophysiological responses in women reporting severe premenstrual symptoms

O van den Akker and A Steptoe
Department of Psychology, St. George's Hospital Medical School, University of London, U.K.

Sixteen women attending a Premenstrual Tension Clinic and eight control women were tested experimentally in the premenstrual and postmenstrual phases with assessments of heart rate, skin conductance level, and neck electromyogram during rest, relaxation, an emotionally upsetting film, and performance of mental arithmetic and video game tasks. All participants completed daily symptom assessments for two menstrual cycles prior to the study. The clinic attenders were divided into eight (Clinic+) who showed marked increases in symptoms premenstrually, and eight (Clinic-) who recorded only modest changes in symptom severity across the menstrual cycle. There were no marked differences in resting autonomic activity. During relaxation, skin conductance level decreased to a greater extent in the premenstrual than in the postmenstrual phase, while neck electromyogram showed the reverse pattern. Heart rate reactions to the mental arithmetic and video game tasks were smaller in the premenstrual than in the postmenstrual phase in Controls and Clinic- groups, but not in the Clinic+ group. Possible explanations of these results are discussed.