PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Premenstrual dysphoric disorder -- review looks at treatment effectiveness

2015-09-09
(Press-News.org) September 9, 2015 - Premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) is a severe form of premenstrual syndrome that causes major disruption in several areas of life for many women. Many treatment options have been proposed, but which are most effective? A comprehensive review of the evidence, including specific treatment guidelines, is presented in the September Journal of Psychiatric Practice, published by Wolters Kluwer.

"Given the debilitating symptoms and impact associated with PMDD, health care professionals need to be able to identify and effectively treat patients with PMDD," write Shalini Maharaj, MPAS, and Kenneth Trevino, PhD, of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. As an aid to clinical decision making, they conducted an in-depth review of the safety and efficacy of proposed treatments for PMDD.

Treatment for PMDD--SSRIs Are First Choice, but Other Options Exist About three to eight percent of premenopausal women suffer from PMDD: a severe form of premenstrual syndrome with a combination of emotional and physical symptoms, causing significant impairment in home, work, and social life. Severe PMDD symptoms may also lead to suicidal thoughts--one study found that 15 percent of women with PMDD reported at least one suicide attempt.

In their review, Maharaj and Trevino identify a wide range of proposed PMDD treatments--classified as psychiatric, anovulatory, supplements, herbal, and non-pharmacologic. While the cause of PMDD is not entirely understood, one contributing factor seems to be negative effects of changing hormone levels on certain neurotransmitters, including serotonin.

This has been supported by studies showing a rapid response to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), a widely used class of antidepressant drugs. Based on the results of 31 randomized trials including nearly 4,400 women, SSRIs are considered the "first-line" treatment for PMDD. Although treatment with SSRIs may be continuous, semi-intermittent, or administered at the start of symptoms, further research is needed to determine which of these treatment schedules provide the best balance between effectiveness and side effects.

For women who experience an inadequate response to SSRIs, other treatment options should be considered. Different types of antidepressants are useful in treating PMDD, while some anti-anxiety drugs are helpful for managing specific PMDD-related symptoms. Oral contraceptives containing drosperinone/ethinyl estradiol are an effective and recommended treatment option for women with PMDD who are also seeking contraception.

When these options fail, various anovulatory treatments--which decrease ovarian hormone production resulting in a state of medical menopause--are effective. However, because of potential side effects and high cost, these are considered "third-line" alternatives.

Various supplements and herbal-related treatments have been proposed as well, with some warranting further research. However, so far, only calcium supplementation has shown a consistent therapeutic benefit.

Maharaj and Trevino call for larger, placebo-controlled studies of potential treatments for PMDD. Such studies should use a consistent definition for PMDD and a placebo screening period to confirm the diagnosis. The authors also stress the need to use or adopt standardized outcome measures in PMDD research, due to the difficulty comparing results from PMDD studies that use different outcome measures.

INFORMATION:

Click here to read "A Comprehensive Review of Treatment Options for Premenstrual Syndrome and Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder."

Article: A Comprehensive Review of Treatment Options for Premenstrual Syndrome and Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (doi: 10.1097/PRA.0000000000000099)

About Journal of Psychiatric Practice Journal of Psychiatric Practice®, a peer reviewed journal, publishes reports on new research, clinically applicable reviews, articles on treatment advances, and case studies, with the goal of providing practical and informative guidance for clinicians. Mental health professionals will want access to this journal¬--for sharpening their clinical skills, discovering the best in treatment, and navigating this rapidly changing field. John M. Oldham, MD, is the editor in chief and past president of the American Psychiatric Association.

About Wolters Kluwer Wolters Kluwer is a global leader in professional information services. Professionals in the areas of legal, business, tax, accounting, finance, audit, risk, compliance and healthcare rely on Wolters Kluwer's market leading information-enabled tools and software solutions to manage their business efficiently, deliver results to their clients, and succeed in an ever more dynamic world.

Wolters Kluwer reported 2014 annual revenues of €3.7 billion. The group serves customers in over 170 countries, and employs over 19,000 people worldwide. The company is headquartered in Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands. Wolters Kluwer shares are listed on NYSE Euronext Amsterdam (WKL) and are included in the AEX and Euronext 100 indices. Wolters Kluwer has a sponsored Level 1 American Depositary Receipt program. The ADRs are traded on the over-the-counter market in the U.S. (WTKWY).

Wolters Kluwer Health is a leading global provider of information and point of care solutions for the healthcare industry. For more information about our products and organization, visit http://www.wolterskluwerhealth.com, follow @WKHealth or @Wolters_Kluwer on Twitter, like us on Facebook, follow us on LinkedIn, or follow WoltersKluwerComms on YouTube.



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Physicists catch a magnetic wave that offers promise for more energy-efficient computing

2015-09-09
A team of physicists has taken pictures of a theorized but previously undetected magnetic wave, the discovery of which offers the potential to be an energy-efficient means to transfer data in consumer electronics. The research, which appears in the journal Physical Review Letters, was conducted by scientists at New York University, Stanford University, and the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. "This is an exciting discovery because it shows that small magnetic waves--known as spin-waves--can add up to a large one in a magnet, a wave that can maintain its shape as ...

Immunity study signals new ways to treat liver failure

2015-09-09
Patients with liver failure could benefit from a treatment that helps the immune system to combat infections linked to the condition, research suggests. A study in mice has revealed that treatment with an immune-boosting molecule called CSF-1 helps to trigger the body's natural defence mechanisms in the liver. Researchers say that if the therapy proves successful in patients, it could help those who are unsuitable for a liver transplant. Patients with liver failure are highly prone to serious infections that can lead to sepsis, a potentially life-threatening condition ...

Brain plasticity in the most dreaded biblical disease

2015-09-09
Brain plasticity is the ability of the brain to change both anatomically and functionally in response to changes in the body or in the environment. For many years, researchers believed that the brain did not suffer major changes after childhood. Although brain plasticity predominates in the first years of life, research done in the last 30 years has shown that it may also occur in adulthood, continuing to change through learning. Brain plasticity may also occur following injury, amputation or nerve damage. Leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease, can be traced back ...

Caterpillar deceives corn plant into lowering defenses against it

Caterpillar deceives corn plant into lowering defenses against it
2015-09-09
In a deception that likely has evolved over thousands of years, a caterpillar that feeds on corn leaves induces the plant to turn off its defenses against insect predators, allowing the caterpillar to eat more and grow faster, according to chemical ecologists in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences. The finding is one more revelation about the myriad of chemical signals that pass between plants and insects that scientists at Penn State and around the world have been discovering in recent years. In this case, the agent of deceit is the caterpillar's feces, or ...

One step towards faster organic electronics

2015-09-09
Organic electronics has many advantages: it is inexpensive, flexible and lightweight. In terms of applications, we are only limited by our imaginations. There has been a lot of development in polymers since the phenomenon of conducting and semi-conducting plastics was discovered and in 2000 awarded a Nobel Prize. Their weakness is still speed; plastics conduct a charge slowly, compared to silicon, for instance. A polymer consists of long chains of hydrocarbon, where other elements are bound, which give the particular plastic its properties. Research is underway, and researchers ...

Android widgets may boost effectiveness of sleep-monitoring apps

2015-09-09
An effective smart phone application should make data collection easy, but not so easy that the user forgets to access and reflect on that information, according to a team of researchers. People who accessed a sleep monitoring app through a small display window -- often called a widget -- on an Android smart phone were more likely to manually enter their diary information, as well as interact with that data than users who monitored their sleep without the feature, according to Eun Kyoung Choe, assistant professor of information sciences and technology, Penn State. "As ...

Human-like nose can sniff out contamination in drinking water

2015-09-09
Amsterdam, September 9, 2015 - A bioelectronic nose that mimics the human nose can detect traces of bacteria in water by smelling it, without the need for complex equipment and testing. According to a study published in Biosensors and Bioelectronics the technology works by using the smell receptors in the human nose. The sensor is simple to use and it can detect tiny amounts of contamination in water, making it more sensitive than existing detection methods. The authors of the study, from Seoul National University, say this could make the technology even more useful in ...

Older kids less likely to have car seats checked for safety than infants

2015-09-09
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Booster seat-aged children are twice as likely to suffer serious injury or death in a car crash than younger children but a new study shows they may be less likely to have car seats inspected for proper use. Less than a quarter of car seat and booster checks analyzed in the new University of Michigan Health System study were conducted in children ages four and older at car seat inspection stations in Michigan. Just 1 in 10, or 11 percent of inspections, covered booster seat-age children ages 4-7 while half were for rear-facing car seats. The findings, ...

How hashtags and @ symbols affect language on Twitter

2015-09-09
Despite all the shortened words and slang seen on Twitter, it turns out that people follow many of the same communication etiquette rules on social media as they do in speech. Research from the Georgia Institute of Technology shows that when tweeters use hashtags -- a practice that can enable messages to reach more people -- they tend to be more formal and drop the use of abbreviations and emoticons. But when they use the @ symbol to address smaller audiences, they're more likely to use non-standard words such as "nah," "cuz" and "smh." The study also found when people ...

How can one assess the effectiveness of hypnosis?

2015-09-09
This news release is available in French. Although hypnosis has existed for hundreds of years, today it is still difficult to clearly judge its usefulness in the medical domain. In a report submitted to the French Directorate General for Health, researchers from Inserm led by Bruno Falissard assessed the effectiveness of this complementary medical practice for some of its indications (women's health, digestive ailments, surgery, psychiatry, etc.). The latter illustrates its therapeutic value during anaesthesia, and in the management of irritable bowel syndrome. It also ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

International collaboration enabled participatory stock assessment on glass eel fisheries in West Java, Indonesia

Enhanced melanoma vaccine offers improved survival for men

Nearly one-third of patients with TBI have marginal or inadequate health literacy

Genetic causes of cerebral palsy uncovered through whole-genome sequencing

Modesty and boastfulness – perception depends on usual performance

Do sweeteners increase your appetite? New evidence from randomised controlled trial says no 

Women with obesity do not need to gain weight during pregnancy, new study suggests

Individuals with multiple sclerosis face substantially greater risk of hospitalisation and death from COVID-19, despite high rates of vaccination

Study shows obesity in childhood associated with a more than doubling of risk of developing multiple sclerosis in early adulthood

Rice Emerging Scholars Program receives $2.5M NSF grant to boost STEM education

Virtual rehabilitation provides benefits for stroke recovery

Generative AI develops potential new drugs for antibiotic-resistant bacteria

Biofuels could help island nations survive a global catastrophe, study suggests

NJIT research team discovering how fluids behave in nanopores with NSF grant

New study shows association of historical housing discrimination and shortfalls in colon cancer treatment

Social media use may help to empower plastic surgery patients

Q&A: How to train AI when you don't have enough data

Wayne State University researchers uncover potential treatment targets for Zika virus-related eye abnormalities

Discovering Van Gogh in the wild: scientists unveil a new gecko species

Small birds spice up the already diverse diet of spotted hyenas in Namibia

Imaging detects transient “hypoxic pockets” in the mouse brain

Dissolved organic matter could be used to track and improve the health of freshwaters

Indoor air quality standards in public buildings would boost health and economy, say international experts

Positive associations between premenstrual disorders and perinatal depression

New imaging method illuminates oxygen's journey in the brain

Researchers discover key gene for toxic alkaloid in barley

New approach to monitoring freshwater quality can identify sources of pollution, and predict their effects

Bidirectional link between premenstrual disorders and perinatal depression

Cell division quality control ‘stopwatch’ uncovered

Vaccine protects cattle from bovine tuberculosis, may eliminate disease

[Press-News.org] Premenstrual dysphoric disorder -- review looks at treatment effectiveness