Epidemiology of Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS) in Students of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.

2 Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.

3 Resident of Psychiatry Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.

4 Resident of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran

5 Instructor, Faculty of Psychiatry, Islamic Azad University, Kashmar, Iran

Abstract

Introduction:Since premenstrual syndrome (PMS) is a frequent disorder of women that interferes in their functions and different frequencies of PMS have been reported in literature and higher rates of it in college students, we decided to study its epidemiology in students of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences (MUMS).
 
Methods and Material: In this descriptive study, 210 female students of MUMS filled the demographic (including age, marriage status and level and field of study) and PMS questionnaire .The results were analyzed by chi square and independent T test.
 
Result: One hundred and one students fulfilled the criteria of PMS (48.1%). Mean age of participants was 22.45 years. PMS were seen in 47.9% of singles and 48.8% of married students. The highest and lowest rates of PMS were seen in associate and bachelor students, respectively (66.7% and 41.4%). Also PMS was seen in laboratory sciences students most frequently. (66.9%) and 54.9% of medical students fulfilled the PMS criteria. The most frequent reported symptoms of PMS were “significant anxiety and tension” (45.7%).
 
Sex, marital status and level of study were not correlated to symptoms of PMS significantly (P>0.05) but there were statistically significant differences of rates of PMS in different fields of study (P=0.006).
 
Conclusion: PMS is prevalent among MUMS students. Lack of a national questionnaire seems to cause reports of different prevalence’s of PMS in Iran.

Keywords

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