CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – A new UVA Health study says premenstrual mood swings and anxiety are a public health issue, because of how common they are in women, reports NBC 29.
Dr. Jennifer Payne, vice chair of research in the Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences Department at UVA, is the senior author of the study. She gathered the research from her work with Flo Health, a mobile app.
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“Perhaps the most important finding was that premenstrual mood and anxiety symptoms were extremely common,” Payne said.
The study used survey results from 238,000 responses about premenstrual symptoms from the app.
Over 61% of women surveyed reported mood-related symptoms with each cycle.
Common symptoms included food cravings, anxiety and mood, and physical pain.
Payne also believes culture plays a role in the symptoms, as different levels of each could be seen all over the globe.
“It’s something that we’ve really ignored over the years, and expect that women will continue to function normally during the premenstrual phase as they do during other phases of their menstrual cycle. But maybe we should rethink that or really start to target treatments,” Payne said.
Dr. Payne says there is a biological aspect occurring and hopes to find out more through another study, so she can offer better treatments.