Personal history of major depression may put women at risk for premenstrual dysphoric symptomatology.

BACKGROUND: Premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) is a chronic condition that significantly affects a woman's well-being on a monthly basis. Although co-occurrence of PMDD and major depressive disorder (MDD) is common, most studies examine whether women with PMDD are at risk for depression and investigations of PMDD in depressed women are scant. Therefore, the present study examined rates of PMDD in young depressed women. METHODS: PMDD was assessed using a structured clinical interview (SCID-PMDD) in a sample of 164 young women with (n=85) and without (n=79) any history of depression. RESULTS: Rates of PMDD were elevated among women with MDD in this sample. This result held true regardless of participants' MDD status (current, lifetime or past history-only symptoms of MDD) and regardless of whether all or most DSM-IV-TR PMDD criteria were met. LIMITATIONS: Sample size in the present study was relatively small, and daily diary data were not available to confirm a PMDD diagnosis. CONCLUSIONS: The current study highlights the need for clinicians to assess for PMDD in young female patients with major depression. Depressed women experiencing the added physical and psychological burden of PMDD may have a more severe disease course, and future studies will need to identify appropriate treatments for this subset of depressed women.

Family consultation for psychiatrically complicated health problems.

We describe a social cybernetic view of health behavior problems and a team-based family consultation (FAMCON) format for strategic intervention based on that view. This approach takes relationships rather than individuals as the primary unit of analysis and attaches more importance to problem maintenance than to etiology. Treatment aims to interrupt two types of interpersonal problem maintenance-ironic processes and symptom-system fit (conceptualized, respectively, as positive and negative feedback cycles)-and to mobilize communal coping as a relational resource for change. A case example features a depressed husband and bipolar wife complaining of severe communication difficulties related to the husband's kidney cancer and diabetes. Over 6 consultation sessions, strategic interventions focused on interrupting ironic interpersonal patterns resolved the presenting complaint. Although cost-effectiveness is an open question, FAMCON may offer a useful alternative to psychoeducational and cognitive-behavioral treatments in the framework of stepped care.

Cardiac vagal control as a prospective predictor of anxiety in women diagnosed with breast cancer.

Low cardiac vagal control (CVC) has been associated with state and trait anxiety and anxiety spectrum disorders. Studies indicate that diagnosis and treatments for breast cancer may be associated with anxiety. The current study examined whether CVC prospectively predicted a trajectory of change in anxiety following breast cancer diagnosis. Forty-three women diagnosed with non-metastatic breast cancer completed the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale and the Perceived Stress Scale, and a 5-min resting electrocardiographic (ECG) segment was recorded. Self-report measures were completed approximately every 3 months for a year. Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) significantly predicted the trajectory of change in anxiety over the follow-up period: participants with higher baseline RSA evidenced decreasing anxiety, whereas those with lower baseline RSA had increasing anxiety. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that CVC facilitates the modulation of anxiety in women coping with significant stressors of breast cancer diagnosis and treatment.