Emotion Dysregulation of Women with Premenstrual Syndrome.

Mengying Wu,Renlai Zhou,Ying Liang,Yan Zhao,Qingguo Wang

doi:10.1038/srep38501

Mengying Wu, Renlai Zhou + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/srep38501

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Abstract

The aim of the current study was to test whether women with premenstrual syndrome (PMS) had difficulties in emotion regulation. In Study 1, we investigated the relationship between the habitual use of emotion-regulation strategies and the severity of PMS (n = 230). The results showed that the severity of PMS was negatively associated with the habitual use of reappraisal, but positively associated with the habitual use of suppression. In Study 2, we first investigated the difference in the spontaneous use of suppression versus reappraisal between women with (n = 42) and without PMS (n = 42) when watching sad film clips. Then we instructed some participants (PMS group = 20, healthy group = 21) to use reappraisal to regulate their emotions induced by a second sad film clip, and the other participants were asked to watch the second film clip freely (PMS group = 22, healthy group = 21). The results showed that there was no significant difference between participants with and without PMS in the self-reported spontaneous use of emotion-regulation strategies. For participants with PMS, increases in spontaneous suppression use were associated with increases in skin conductance level (SCL), while this association was not found among participants without PMS.

Highlights

Of symptoms as normal change can effectively reduce premenstrual distress16, implying the dysfunction of emotion-regulation based on cognitive change among women with premenstrual syndrome (PMS)
We first assessed the relationship between habitual emotion regulation and the severity of PMS via self-report questionnaires to investigate whether the habitual use of maladaptive emotion-regulation strategy was a vulnerable factor of PMS; secondly, we used sad film clips as emotion stimuli to investigate participants’ spontaneous choice of emotion regulation strategy and their regulation efficacy in the emotion-inducing situation; thirdly, we assessed participants’ performance when instructed to use reappraisal to regulate their emotions to reveal the difference in instructed emotion regulation between women with and without PMS
Four hypotheses were tested in the current study: [1] severity of PMS is negatively associated with the habitual use of reappraisal, but positively associated with the habitual use of suppression; [2] women with PMS have higher levels of reported spontaneous emotion suppression and lower levels of reported emotion reappraisal as compared to women without PMS in the spontaneous emotion regulation task; [3] women with PMS have reduced benefit from instructed reappraisal as compared to women without PMS in the instructed emotion regulation task; [4] the difference regarding the performance of emotion regulation between women with and without PMS occurs only in the premenstrual phase

Summary

Introduction

Of symptoms as normal change can effectively reduce premenstrual distress, implying the dysfunction of emotion-regulation based on cognitive change among women with PMS. Recent neuroimaging studies revealed that the greater use of reappraisal in everyday life was related to decreased amygdala activity and increased prefrontal and parietal activity during the processing of negative emotional facial expressions. Recent neuroimaging studies revealed that the greater use of reappraisal in everyday life was related to decreased amygdala activity and increased prefrontal and parietal activity during the processing of negative emotional facial expressions23 Based on these findings, emotion dysregulation has long been thought to be a vulnerability factor for mood disorders. We first assessed the relationship between habitual emotion regulation and the severity of PMS via self-report questionnaires to investigate whether the habitual use of maladaptive emotion-regulation strategy was a vulnerable factor of PMS; secondly, we used sad film clips as emotion stimuli to investigate participants’ spontaneous choice of emotion regulation strategy and their regulation efficacy in the emotion-inducing situation; thirdly, we assessed participants’ performance when instructed to use reappraisal to regulate their emotions to reveal the difference in instructed emotion regulation between women with and without PMS. In the current study, we used skin conductance level (SCL) as the physiological index of emotion regulation effects, which was widely used in the emotion regulation paradigm with sad film clips as emotion-inducing stimuli

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