Premenstrual Disorders

I wonder if he’ll take away my punishment once Mom tells him the doctor thinks I have no control over this. After all, it was his fault for getting me so mad, wasn’t it? But then again, maybe it wasn’t Dad’s fault. The doctor sent me to see a therapist, Dr. Jill, and she talked to me about choices and stuff. I guess she said my choices are my own and I am responsible for them. I can’t blame what I do on somebody else. My actions don’t have to be based on what Sarah or Dad or anybody else says but on what I know is right. Each time I explode, I always think someone else has made me do it. But no matter what time of the month it is, I have control over my own words, no one else does. This may take some getting used to. Sometimes it just seems too hard. But if I ignore what Dr. Jill and the doctor tell me, then I’ll have to continue like I am now. I don’t want that. I hate being grounded, I hate fighting with my best friend, and I hate feeling like I can’t even think straight. I could go crazy if I go on like this. When Emily takes her first antidepressant she will be using one of the SSRIs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to help control the symptoms of PMS and its more serious cousin, PMDD. As the medicine enters the bloodstream, it travels to the brain and attaches itself to the serotonin neurotransmitters, helping the signals of the brain to be stronger and more normal. This allows the brain to signal other parts of the body properly, protecting it from pain, headaches, tension, and other annoying symptoms that are part of the monthly struggles of PMS sufferers. On November 3, 1999, the Food and Drug Administration’s Psy- chopharmacologic Advisory Committee recommended that fluox- etine hydrochloride, the main ingredient in Prozac, be approved to treat women with PMDD. They advised that the drug be used only for women whose symptoms are severe enough to cause problems while at work, school, or during social activities. Without the drug, these women would not be able to function at the same level during the week or two they experience symptoms as they would the rest of the month. As a result of this recommendation, Eli Lilly, manu-

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Treatment Using SSRIs