La sindrome premestruale - Un modello clinico di compromesso psiconeuroendocrino ciclico

PMS encompasses a variety of cyclic recurrent symptoms (physical, emotional, behavioural and cognitive) occurring during the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle and remitting shortly following the beginning of menses. The lack of world-wide recognized diagnostic criteria still gives origin to several problems in design of research studies and in clinical practice. PMS represents a clinical model of a cyclic psychoneuroendocrine compromise which female adaptive system plays every month in response to physiologic fluctuations of ovarian steroids. The complexity of the syndrome is related to the peculiar threshold of vulnerability proper to every woman which is modulated during the fertile life by several biological and psychosocial factors. Given the distinctive characteristics of such syndrome, cyclicity, heterogeneity but mainly subjectivity, the therapeutic approach to premenstrual symptomatology is quite complex and requires an individualized management.