PMDD Walks Into DSM 5

 

PMDD, premenstrual dysphoric disorder is currently a diagnosis in the appendix of DSM IV, meaning that if a physician believes the patient has PMDD, then he/she must write Depression NOS (not otherwise specified). At the same time, there are currently drugs approved for PMDD, despite the fact that it has not achieved diagnostic status. Well, come May, 2013, after Bill Clinton speaks to the American Psychiatric Association in San Francisco, California, the DSM 5 will be announced and the criteria for mental illnesses, in the United States, at least, but probably around the world, will change, including more folks, causing a large stir about the wider scope of psychiatric disease.  DSM IV came out in 1994, making almost ten years of a classification system, which for the most part, has not matched the explosion in psychopharmacology. DSM 5 has taken a long time, mostly, as I can tell, because the debates over the diagnostic system were tense. So, it is very likely that PMDD will hit the light of day and now women who suffer from terrible irritability before their periods will merit a psychiatric diagnosis. The good news is that there will be more acceptance of the biology of mood swings, and then hopefully more acceptance of psychopharmacological interventions. The bad news is that some women, through no fault of their own, will be labeled, potentially increasing their premiums for health insurance, life insurance and disability insurance. The triad of emotional lability, irritability and anger, during the luteal, or last phase of the menstrual cycle, in about 2-5% of menstruating women, had been validated in the research over the past 20 years. This additional research, the DSM 5 committee argued, gave good reason for PMDD to be “promoted” to  a diagnosis and out of the appendix. PMDD now joins the ranks of a full blown mood disorder; it is in parallel with bipolar disorder, which also has prominent mood lability and irritability, but PMDD symptoms cease on the first or second day of menses. Plus, PMDD comes with physical symptoms of bloating and breast tenderness, making it easily distinguishable from bipolar disorder. What about heritability? You ask, knowing that most psychiatric diagnoses run in families. The heritability of PMDD ranges from 30-80% which is indeed, a wide range, but enough to merit a full diagnosis. What about treatment? PMDD is ameliorated with an SSRI (Prozac and his cousins), quickly, unlike when an SSRI is used to treat Major Depression. Also, intermittent or continuous treatment are both helpful, suggesting that a constant blood level is not necessary, but rather more serotonin in the premenstrual or late luteal phase, seems to do the trick. So, the world will change in May, 2013, the psychiatric world, that is, and hence all of us who work, love and/or experience others who suffer with negativity, irritability, and quickly shifting moods. Now, women who cycle in and out of these mind states will be legitimized on the one hand, and maybe, but hopefully not, stigmatized, on the other.