The American Psychiatric Association once branded PMS, premenstrual syndrome is a mental disorder. A new research in Australia, however, debunks the claim and a main proponent of this latest study says that to claim PMS is a mental disorder is sexist.
Dr. Tamara Kayali Browne, a lecturer and researcher from the Australian National University - Research School of Biology, debunks the mental disorder myth which has been surrounded PMS since the APS listed it the syndrome as a mental disorder.
Dr. Browne says that for any set of symptoms to be considered a disorder, it should be prevalent globally. PMS, she says, is just not a global phenomenon among women and thus it should not be regarded as a disorder, let alone, a mental disorder.
PMDD or premenstrual dysphoric disorder, which is the focus of Dr. Browne's study, exhibits a severe form of PMS. Even then, though, Dr. Browne does not regard PMDD to be a mental disorder. In the study, she conducted, she and her team found out that PMDD is most affected by non-biological factors.
The study claims that the transition of a woman's symptoms from PMS to PMDD is mostly affected by external factors. This conclusion has been drawn from the observation that a majority of the women who suffer PMDD have suffered abuse in various degrees and types. Other than abuse, the transition is also present among women who are experiencing troubles in their family lives and workplaces.
For this, Dr. Browne says that since the factors are external, claiming that PMDD or PMS as a mental disorder is incorrect. The real problem does not lie within the individual. Even when PMS is experienced by a huge number of women worldwide, the psychological component (that is supposed to arise from within the person as a, say, complication of the syndrome) which is necessary to brand it as a mental disorder is missing.