Psychophysiological, somatic, and affective changes across the menstrual cycle in women with panic disorder.

This study explored menstrual symptoms, somatic focus, negative affect, and psychophysiological responding across the menstrual cycle in women with panic disorder and controls. Women with and without panic disorder completed a psychophysiological task and self-report measures of menstrual symptoms, somatic focus, and negative affect on 4 occasions across 2 menstrual cycles (twice during intermenstrual and premenstrual phases). Women in the panic disorder group exhibited greater skin conductance magnitude and more frequent skin conductance responses to anxiety-provoking stimuli during the premenstrual phase than did controls. Compared to controls, women with panic disorder endorsed more severe menstrual symptoms relating to bodily sensations, anxiety sensitivity, state and trait anxiety, fear of body sensations, and illness-related concerns. The applicability of anxiety sensitivity to understanding the relation of menstrual reactivity and panic disorder is discussed.

The impact of anxiety sensitivity, bodily expectations, and cultural beliefs on menstrual symptom reporting: a test of the menstrual reactivity hypothesis.

According to the menstrual reactivity hypothesis, certain women report more severe as well as a greater number of menstrual symptoms due to accurate reports of physical symptoms and expectations (e.g., cultural beliefs, sex roles, bodily sensations). To test this hypothesis and to further examine the role that anxiety sensitivity plays in menstrual symptom reporting, women varying in levels of anxiety sensitivity completed measures of sex role socialization, menstrual attitudes, bodily preoccupations, affect, and fear of illness. To assess psychophysiological reactivity and the applicability of response styles theory to individuals varying in anxiety sensitivity, skin conductance was measured as participants engaged in a rumination or distraction task. In addition, participants completed a modified Stroop task consisting of anxiety, menstrual, and neutral words followed by a surprise recognition task. Retrospectively and prospectively, women high in anxiety sensitivity consistently reported more severe menstrual symptoms. High anxiety sensitivity women also reported preoccupation with bodily sensations and more negative attitudes toward illness, but did not differ from low anxiety sensitivity women on measures of menstrual attitudes or sex role socialization. While engaging in a rumination task, high anxiety sensitivity women exhibited more frequent skin conductance responses and greater skin conductance response magnitude than low anxiety sensitivity women. In addition, after the rumination task, high anxiety sensitivity women recognized more anxiety-related words from the Stroop task. Menstrual cycle phase had less of an impact than anxiety sensitivity level on the current results. Implications of these results for the menstrual reactivity hypothesis and rumination are discussed.