Predicting the Premenstrual Syndrome Based on Alexithymia and Self-Efficacy in Women with Migraine: A Cross-Sectional Study

Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS) is a common problem in women with migraines. Due to the importance of recognizing aspects of this issue, this study was conducted to investigate the role of alexithymia and self-efficacy factors in predicting PMS.

This analytical cross-sectional study was performed on the statistical population of women with migraine referred to medical centers in Rasht in 2021. 160 women with migraines participated in convenience sampling methods from medical centers and responded to the Demographic Information Questionnaire, Premenstrual Symptoms Screening Tool (PSST), Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) and General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSE). Data analysis was performed using IBM SPSS 21 (IBM Inc, New York, USA) statistical software.

The results showed that 59.6% of the women had PMS. Pearson correlation coefficient showed that PMS was negatively associated with self-efficacy (r=-0.28; p=0.001) and positively associated with alexithymia (r=0.22; P=0.001). Multiple linear regression analysis indicated that the self-efficacy variable (β=-0.27) negatively predicts 11% of the changes in the PMS variable.

Self-efficacy and alexithymia are PMS-related factors; thus it is suggested that health care providers pay attention to the importance of these psychological factors in developing treatment plans.