Brain Scans Reveal Changes Linked to PMDD

A new study supports the clinical relevance of the proposal that dorsolateral prefrontal cortex dysfunction represents a substrate of risk for premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD). When women with PMDD and women without the disorder were given a cognitive task, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex of the former became significantly more activated than did the prefrontal cortex of the latter.

So reports Karen Berman, M.D., and Peter J. Schmidt, M.D., of the National Institute of Mental Health Intramural Research Program, and their colleagues in AJP in Advance.  It thus looks as though the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex "plays an important role in PMDD," they conclude.

"PMDD is not a diagnosis without controversy in women's mental health circles," Claudia Reardon, M.D., an assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin and an expert on women's issues, told Psychiatric News. "Studies like this that start to look at objective data will hopefully help us move toward a more informed understanding of the nature of the underlying dysfunction."

Researchers have also linked specific variants in an estrogen receptor gene to PMDD. See Psychiatric News.

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