Table 1.
Sociodemographic characteristics (mean ± SD) of both groups.
Table 2.
Salivary sex hormone levels (mean ± SD) in follicular and luteal cycle phases for both groups.
Figure 1.
Affective symptoms in PMS subjects and control subjects across the menstrual cycle.
Top Panel: Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) scores in women with premenstrual syndrome (PMS) are significantly increased (*: p = 0.025) in the luteal cycle phase (dark grey) compared to the follicular phase (light grey) but not in women without PMS (CTL). Bars represent one standard deviation. Bottom Panel: Hamilton Depression Scale (HAM-D) scores are significantly increased in women with PMS (*: p = 0.001) in the luteal cycle phase (dark grey) compared to the follicular phase (light grey) but not in women without PMS (CTL). Bars represent one standard deviation.
Figure 2.
Resolution of Emotion Conflict differs according to menstrual cycle phase.
Top panel: Scatter plots show individual differences in reaction time (sec) between the incongruent and congruent condition of the emotional Stroop task in the follicular and the luteal cycle phase in all subjects (mean reaction time shown in black). These data indicate a significant increase (p = 0.001) in mean reaction time for resolving emotional conflict between the follicular and the luteal cycle phase in all subjects. Bottom panel: Boxplots-bars show mean differences in reaction time (sec) between the incongruent and congruent condition of the emotional Stroop task in the follicular and the luteal cycle phase split by subject group (dark grey = PMS group, light grey = control group). Whiskers represent minimum and maximum of data-range. On average, the PMS group tended to show a faster mean reaction time compared to the control group (follicular phase: PMS group mean ± SD = 0.02±0.02 sec, Control group mean ± SD = 0.03±0.02 sec; luteal phase: PMS group mean ± SD = 0.04±0.03 sec, Control group mean ± SD = 0.05±0.03 sec), however, overlap exists and this difference is not significant (follicular phase: p = 0.17; luteal phase: p = 0.19).
Figure 3.
Heightened physiological and subjective stress levels in women with premenstrual syndrome (PMS) in the luteal menstrual phase.
Top Panel: Boxplots-bars show mean salivary cortisol values (ln) comparing the follicular and the luteal cycle phase in PMS subjects (dark grey) versus control subjects (light grey). Whiskers represent minimum and maximum of data-range. On average, salivary cortisol levels increased from the follicular to the luteal cycle phase in the PMS group (p = 0.04). Bottom panel: In the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), the PMS group (dark grey) displayed a similar trend for an increase from the follicular to the luteal cycle phase (p = 0.20) as depicted by boxplot-bars. On average, the PMS group (dark grey) tended to report higher subjective acute stress reactivity compared to the control group (light grey), revealing a significant difference for the luteal cycle phase (p = 0.01). Whiskers represent minimum and maximum of data-range.