The diagnosis of PMS/PMDD - the current debate

Despite several decades of research and progress in knowledge on premenstrual syndrome (PMS), acceptance by most laypeople in Western countries and the availability of reasonably effective treatment modalities, the definitions and diagnostic criteria for PMS remain controversial. We are still far from a biomedical and/or biopsychosocial model of a diagnostic entity based on etiology, pathophysiology, phenomena, time course, and treatment response. Even descriptive diagnoses are fragmented with at least two main pathways: gynecological and psychiatric. Furthermore, there is still a group that doubts the existence of PMS - mostly on political-psychosocial grounds.