Browsing by Author "Laamanen, Viivi"

Background. Premenstrual syndrome is a global health problem affecting around a quarter of people who menstruate. Symptoms include both psychological and physical symptoms which appear before menstruation. Symptoms affect negatively different aspects of life and wellbeing of the individuals suffering from it and can for example lead to work absence. Treatment of the syndrome has been focusing on pharmacological solutions which are not suitable for everyone. This dissertation’s goal was to study the potential of interventions based on cognitive therapy in the treatment of premenstrual syndrome. It has been suggested that the syndrome is partly caused by the interpretations individuals make of their symptoms and the emotional and behavioural reactions caused by those interpretations. These interpretations could possibly be altered by cognitive therapy. Different interventions based on cognitive therapy have also shown to be effective in treating disorders with similar symptoms as premenstrual syndrome such as depression. Methods. Literacy search was conducted with the search words ”premenstrual syndrome psychological treatment”, ”premenstrual syndrome non-pharmacological treatment” and ”premenstrual syndrome therapy” from PubMed, PsycINFO (Ovid) and Google Scholar databases. Articles were also searched from the references of found papers. Five studies were selected for this dissertation. Selected studies did not use pharmacological treatments, the participants had no diagnosable mental disorders and the intervention used to treat premenstrual syndrome was based on cognitive therapy. Results and conclusions. The results indicate that interventions based on cognitive therapy can alleviate both the symptoms and negative effects of premenstrual syndrome. Interventions were more effective in alleviating the psychological symptoms than the physical symptoms. The factors behind these positive changes are unclear but increased coping-skills, health-promoting habits, and changes in thinking patterns were suggested as constituting factors. No direct effect was found on work or studies, but it is possible that the decrease in symptoms could positively impact these areas of life. However, the samples were small, and the length of follow-ups were short, so further research is required.