Premenstrual Disorders

get over our fight. It wasn’t that big, I mean I hardly remember what happened, and I told her I was sorry that I lost it. We finally went out to our favorite sub shop for lunch today, and I treated. I’m excited about our Homecoming Dance next month. We’re both going, Sarah with Cory and me with Mark. Mark and Cory are best friends just like Sarah and me, so it should be fun. And this weekend we go shopping for our dresses. I can’t wait.

Emily’s having a great week. She’s in her second week of her cycle, her men- ses are over, and things are looking fine—but unfortunately, she hasn’t fig- ured out yet that her good feelings will only last for another week or so. Even though it will take her time to figure out exactly how her body is re- acting to hormones and other changes that happen during her monthly cycle,

syndrome : A group of signs and symptoms that occur together and characterize a par- ticular abnormality.

Emily and others like her have the benefit of today’s research. Sci- entists who look to affect changes in imbalances in the body have led the way to the development of drugs that help normalize the extreme symptoms of PMS and PMDD. As long ago as 450 bc, Hippocrates may have been one of the first researchers to notice the effects of premenstrual symptoms. But from then until very recently, the cyclical effects on women each month did not receive the effort needed to cause any major changes in treatment or recognition of PMS as a real syndrome . As recently as 1931, R. T. Frank described the symptoms women experience monthly as premenstrual tension. Finally, in 1953, Dr. Katharina Dalton studied the symptoms and the way they affect women each month. She believed there was a real link between the monthly cycle and the physical and psychological symptoms. Dr. Dal- ton began looking for ways to treat this disorder. She was the first to use the term premenstrual syndrome to describe the pattern of symptoms. And she began an almost one-woman campaign to not

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History of Zoloft and Prozac