Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS)

Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS) refers to a condition that results from the dramatic fluctuations of hormones, thus exerting an adverse impact on the women's ability to regulate their mood and behavior. Typically, the symptoms occur two weeks before the next menstrual period, lasting from two to 14 days, and subside with the onset of their menses ("Premenstrual Syndrome," 2000, p. 1). According to researchers, as many as 40 million women experience symptoms of PMS. Among this group of women, over five million women need medical intervention in order to cope with the severity of their symptoms (Lichten, 2000, p. 1).

The physical and emotions symptoms of PMS number more than 150. Physical symptoms of PMS consist of "headache, migraine, fluid retention, fatigue, constipation, painful joints, backache, abdominal cramping, heart palpitations and weight gain" (Lichten, 2000, p. 1). Patients with emotional symptoms are afflicted with severe mood swings. While some are anxious and chronically depressed, others are prone to panic attacks and frequent bouts of irritability. Suffering from severe stress, these individuals' ability to cope with their work and other areas of life is severely undermined by the symptoms of PMS (Lichten, 2000, p. 1).

Although American medical professions identified the symptoms of PMS in 1931, the general public only became aware of PMS in 1986 when it was officially recognized as a psychiatric disorder by the American Psychiatric Association (APA). Essenti

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t decrease in the following symptoms: "Irritability, mood alteration, anger, headache and breast fullness" (Schellenberg, 2001, pp. 134-7). Women suffering from severe PMS need to get treatment for their symptoms because they can wreak havoc on their lives and society. In rare instances, untreated women have attributed their crimes to severe versions of PMS in criminal court cases. According to Dr. Katharina Dalton, an authority on PMS, women who suffer from severe versions of PMS may experience psychosis and hallucination that last for one to two days during the two-week period before menstruation. Nonetheless, Dalton highlights the fact that these types of PMS affect a rare percentage of individuals and warns: "�genuine cases are few and far between, and it is important to ensure that PMS is not made a universal defense" (qtd. in Davidson, 2000, p. 7). Although the PMS defense has been employed to acquit female criminals and murderers in European courts during the 19th century, it has become popularized since the 1980s in Europe and Canada. For example, in the case Regina v. Craddock in which Sandie Craddock was charged with the murder of a fellow barmaid, Dr. Dalton used Craddock's diaries and prison records to prove that Cra

Category: Medical - P