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Premenstrual Dysphonic Disorder  (PMDD)

As you might have read in the Wall Street Journal, Section B, Front Page of the Health Journal, February 23, 2001, it read "Drug Firms Treat PMS As a Mental Disorder"   Tara Parker-Pope states that PMS is being made into a mental illness.   Some pharmaceutical companies and psychiatrists are treating it as one. In new television ads, drug maker Eli Lilly is promoting the drug Sarafem to treat the problem, now dubbed Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD). But the pink and purple pills aren't a new drug -- they are simply repackaged Prozac, the popular antidepressant.

Makers of similar antidepressants also may follow suit. The medical community, however, remains divided about whether PMDD is a real disorder or simply a way for drug companies to cast a wider net in search of new customers. Critics are particularly concerned about labeling women as mentally ill because of problems associated with menstrual cycles.

"When you start calling what PMS is a psychiatric disorder, what are you saying about the women of this world?" says Nada Stotland, director of psychiatric education at the Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center in Chicago. "This lends itself to prejudices people already have about women being moody and unreliable."

Unlike other mental illnesses that affect a patient on a daily basis, PMDD is said to affect women during the week to two weeks before their period. The symptoms include depression, anxiety, tension, anger, irritability and the feeling of being overwhelmed or out of control. Other symptoms also are typical of traditional PMS, such as breast tenderness, headache, bloating and weight gain and sleeplessness. 

This article also states that Paula Caplan, a psychologist and affiliated scholar at Brown University's Pembroke Center for Research and Teaching on Women, says instead of labeling women as mentally ill, physicians should urge diet changes, exercise, less caffeine and even calcium supplements. "But nobody makes much money off calcium tablets," she adds.

Note:  We do not condone in any way using drugs to help "depression" whether because of PMS or any other health reason. See:  Better Choices for Mental Health