How to determine symptom severity in premenstrual syndrome: a combination of daily symptom ratings and interviews.

Objective: To investigate how premenstrual symptoms are experienced and affect daily life, and to see if there is an agreement in reported symptom severity based on interviews compared to ratings on a symptom rating scale.

Study Design: Twenty-two women with different degree of premenstrual symptoms were interviewed about their symptoms. Based on the luteal-phase interviews, they were categorized in four different severity groups: severe (n=5), moderate (n=3), mild (n=8), and no symptoms/cyclicity (n=6). The interviews were then compared with rated symptom scores, number of expressed symptoms per day, number of days with symptoms, and daily life impairment.

Main Outcome Measures: Agreement between rated symptom scores and reported symptoms in the interviews.

Results: Comparing seven days in luteal phase scorings with interview data the group with no symptoms/cyclicity showed high agreement between severities reported in the interviews and daily rated scores. Among women who reported severe symptoms, an agreement was seen in three out of five. In the mild/moderate group, the agreement was less conclusive. The day of interview there was a high agreement between data from the reported symptom ratings and symptoms reported in the interview.

Conclusion: Rated symptom scores the day of interview reflects well symptoms reported in the interviews. Mean symptom scores for seven luteal phase days showed an agreement between symptom ratings and symptoms expressed in interviews among women with severe symptoms and no symptoms/cyclicity. In the group with mild/moderate symptoms, data was less conclusive.