Title	Premenstrual Syndrome [electronic resource] : Ethical and Legal Implications in a Biomedical Perspective / edited by Benson E. Ginsburg, Bonnie Frank Carter
Imprint	Boston, MA : Springer US, 1987
Connect to	http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-5275-4
Descript	XVI, 436 p. online resource

As the work on a revised edition of the Diagnostic and StatisticaL ManuaL (OSM-llIR) progressed, a great controversy grew over the inclusion of a new diagnostic category, "Premenstrual Phase Dysphoric Disorder." Some nosologists and scientists who study premenstrual syndrome (PMS) felt that, while a specific psychiatric disorder does exist, it occurs relatively rarely. The disorder can be characterized by recurrent periods of dysphoria on a monthly basis, in synchrony with the menstrual period. "PMS" already exists as a diagnosis in leD 9, the international medical nomenclature. The category for DSM-IIIR was to be a specific psychiatric disorder concentrating on the dysphoric reaction, and not including all of the physical and mental symptoms that people have ascribed to this condition. Much of the controversy that ensued had little to do with the diagnostic category or the condition itself. Rather, it concerned feelings voiced by feminist groups that the new diagnostic category would be misleading, that it would inappropriately label women as mentally ill, and that it would be affixed not only to the dysphoric disorder, but everything else that happens psychiatrically to women

Premenstrual Syndrome: Studies in Interdisciplinary Problem-Solving -- Ethical Issues -- The Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS) Label: Benefit or Burden? -- Neuroscience Research and Premenstrual Syndrome: Scientific and Ethical Concerns -- Practical and Ethical Aspects of Pharmacotherapeutic Evaluation -- Legal Issues -- Premenstrual Syndrome, Mental Abnormality, and Legal Responsibility -- The Insanity Defense in Criminal Law -- Premenstrual Syndrome and Criminal Responsibility -- Criminal Law, Biological Psychiatry, and Premenstrual Syndrome: Conflicting Perspectives -- Social Issues -- Premenstrual Syndrome and the Medicalization of Menopause: A Sociological Perspective -- Menstrual Symptoms and Menstrual Beliefs: National and Cross-National Patterns -- Media Treatment of Premenstrual Syndrome -- A View from the Top of a Consumer Organization -- Psychological Issues -- Premenstrual Syndrome: Implications for Psychiatric Practice -- The Scientific Method and Ethical Treatment of Premenstrual Complaints -- Perceptions of Menstrual and Premenstrual Symptoms: Self-Definitional Processes at Menarche -- Biomedical Issues -- Historical Development of Progesterone Therapy -- Should Premenstrual Syndrome Be a Legal Defense? -- Premenstrual Syndrome: Characterization, Therapies, and the Law -- Controversies in Premenstrual Syndrome: Etiology and Treatment -- Pathophysiology and Treatment of Premenstrual Syndrome -- Dysphoric Premenstrual Changes: Are They Related to Affective Disorders? -- The Psychobiology of Premenstrual Syndromes: The Michigan Studies -- Conclusions -- The Multiple Facets of Eve: The Place of Premenstrual Syndrome in the Taxonomy of Affective Behavior -- Author Index