Increased Childhood Abuse in Patients With Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder in a Turkish Sample: A Cross-Sectional Study

Objective: Abuse is considered to have a place in the etiology of various psychiatric disorders. Premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) is one of the psychiatric disorders for which abuse could be an etiologic factor; however, few studies have investigated the relationship between abuse and PMDD. In this study, our aim was to investigate childhood abuse in patients with PMDD and compare them with healthy female subjects.

Method: This cross-sectional study included 70 women with PMDD (DSM-IV-TR criteria) who were admitted to the outpatient psychiatry clinic of Ankara Yenimahalle State Hospital, Ankara, Turkey, between December 2012 and December 2013. Additionally, 78 healthy controls were included in the study. Sociodemographic, familial, and reproductive period characteristics of the women were recorded. All subjects were administered the Premenstrual Syndrome Scale (PMSS) and the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ).

Results: Among the sociodemographic characteristics, being a university graduate (76.9%) and being a public servant (70.5%) were significantly higher in the healthy control group (P = .01 and P = .01, respectively). A family history of PMDD (31.4%), a history of postpartum psychiatric disorders (11.4%), and a history of attempted suicide (7.1%) were higher in the PMDD group compared with the healthy control group (P = .001, P = .003, and P = .024, respectively). Significant differences were also found between PMDD and healthy controls in PMSS score (P ≤ .001), CTQ total scores (P = .002), and subscale scores including emotional abuse and emotional neglect (P = .004), physical abuse (P = .009), and sexual abuse (P = .012).

Conclusions: To our knowledge, the present study is the first to investigate associations between PMDD and childhood abuse from Turkey. More comprehensive studies on this topic with larger sample sizes are required to enrich the literature and enable practitioners to be more effective in clinical practice.