The Effect of Group Counseling on Premenstrual Syndrome in High School Girls in Hamadan, 2017: A Clinical Trial

Premenstrual syndrome with high prevalence has a negative effect on girls’ normal living. Using drugs to relieve the symptoms and adverse effects of long-term use of the drugs can be a matter of concern. In this study, we tried to reduce the severity of premenstrual syndrome using group counseling. The study sample was girls aged 15 to 17 years old studying in high school in Hamadan in 2016. The study tools were two questionnaires containing demographic characteristics and the PSST. Of 215 participants, 120 subjects with moderate to severe menstrual syndrome were divided into two groups of 60 subjects. Subjects participated in 3 counseling sessions regarding increasing self-awareness about the premenstrual syndrome. Data was analyzed by SPSS21 using independent and paired t-test. The significance level was less than 0.05. The mean of severity of premenstrual syndrome before and after counseling sessions was not statistically significant in the both groups (P =0.87), but after the end of the consultation, there was a significant decrease in mean severity of syndrome severity in the intervention group compared to the control group (P <0.001). Counseling in premenstrual syndrome can have an effective role in reducing the severity of premenstrual symptoms.