WEEK 1 – INTRODUCTION

Introduction: Getting to know PMDD

PMDD can affect any women or individual assigned female at birth (AFAB) during their menstruating years, typically 12-45 years of age. It is estimated that as many as 5-8% of girls and women in the United Kingdom are experiencing PMDD, equivalent to 800,000 individuals at any given time (IAPMD, 2022).

PMDD was not officially listed as a mental health disorder within the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) until 2013, which is their most recent publication. Before this, the condition was named but not officially recognised as ‘premenstrual syndrome’, followed later by ‘Late Luteal Phase Dysphoric Disorder’ (LLPDD). LLPDD consequently spent many years after this in the DSM section entitled ‘conditions deserving further study’, particularly in the DSM-IIIR (1987), until finding its current resting place under ‘depressive disorders’ in the DSM- 5 (2013), as aforementioned. The condition is now referred to as PMDD, but older and previous pieces research (pre-2013) may refer to PMDD as PMS or LLPDD.  Below is the current DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for PMDD:

Table 1: Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder DMS-5 diagnostic criteria (2013)

The above symptoms and criteria are primarily experienced during the Luteal Phase of a female’s menstrual cycle which begins roughly one week before menstruation starts and symptoms rapidly subside as soon as bleeding starts or a couple of days after this point. The disorder impacts behaviour and interaction, emotion/ feelings, psychology and bodily sensations / physiology, with symptoms being presented on all areas of a Cross Sectional Formulation (CSF) within Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.