Investigating the Efficacy of Cognitive- Behavioral Stress-Management Training on Decreasing the Psychological Problems and Symptoms of Premenstrual Syndrome of Afflicted Women

Since the premenstrual syndrome (PMS) is one of the most prevalent disorders in fertility age that disturbs the women''s life considerably which seems it need to do more study in this area. The present study was planned to investigate the effectiveness of training of cognitive- behavioral stress-management on decreasing psychological problems and symptoms of premenstrual syndrome of afflicted women in Kashmar city. This interventional study was conducted with pretest- posttest design by using the experimental-control groups. Statistical population was consisted of all female members of educational system in Kashmar city in academic year of 2010-2011. After screening by PSST test، 40 participants who have taken PMS diagnosis، were selected randomly based on cluster sampling method and divided randomly into two equal (20 participants) experimental and control groups. While no intervention was carried out on the control group، the experimental group experienced 8 weeks of cognitive-behavioral stress-management training. The questionnaires of PSST and Depression anxiety and stress scale (DASS) were used in pretest and posttest as evaluating tools. Data were analyzed using statistical SPSS software version 16، descriptive indices and covariance analysis. P value less than 0. 05 was considered statistically significant. More than half of the participants (53. 3%) were between 36 to 40 years. 18 persons (60%) were graduated، 10 persons (33. 4%) had Associate degree، 2 persons (6. 6%) had diploma، and master degree in both groups. Most of the participants (63. 34%) had two children. The experimental group showed significant decreases in general score of PMS (p<0. 01)، the ones of depression (p<0. 05)، and stress (p<0. 01) posttests. Training of cognitive-behavioral stress-management is effective on decreasing psychological problems and symptoms of premenstrual syndrome of afflicted women.