Prevalence, Severity, and Clinical Manifestations of Premenstrual Syndrome among the Students Residing in the Dormitories of Arak University of Medical Sciences, Iran

Premenstrual syndrome is one of the common problems in women of reproductive age and has many physical and psychological symptoms with weak, moderate, and severe expressions. Considering the different results of researches done in this field, this study aimed to determine the prevalence, severity, and clinical manifestations of premenstrual syndrome in the students residing in the dormitories of Arak University of Medical Sciences. This study was conducted as a descriptive study on 500 students residing in the dormitories of Arak University of Medical Sciences in 2009. The 10-item shortened premenstrual assessment form and the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales 21 (DASS 21) were completed by research units. The mean age of the students participated in the research was 21.47±2.55 years old. 96.6% of the participants had some degree of premenstrual syndrome. Frequency of premenstrual syndrome on the basis of mild, moderate, severe, and very severe degrees was 52.2%, 38.8%, 5.2%, and 0.6%, respectively. Among the reported symptoms of premenstrual syndrome, such as stress, nervousness, irritability, depression, breast tenderness, backache, weight gain, abdominal pain, and bloating, psychological symptoms were more common than physical symptoms. According to the results of this study, since premenstrual syndrome is a common problem among women in reproductive age and has adverse effects on quality of life, so, preventive and therapeutic strategies should be provided to solve this problem.