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American Morning

New Hope Today For Women Suffering From Most Severe Form of PMS

Aired May 21, 2002 - 08:39   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Time now for this morning's house call. There is new hope today for women suffering from the most severe form of PMS. The FDA has just approved the antidepressant Zoloft from treating women who have a condition know as premenstrual dysphoric disorder.

CNN medical correspondent Rhonda Rowland joins us from Atlanta with more.

Rhonda, good morning.

RHONDA ROWLAND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.

And first of all, I'd like to start off by just defining a few terms. Most people are familiar with regular PMS, premenstrual syndrome, and this is something most women have experienced at some time or another. It usually lasts for several days. It's characterized by irritability, bloating, cramping, but with the most severe forms of premenstrual dysphoric disorder, or PMDD. Just 3-4 percent of women experience this. And how it's different is that it lasts two weeks from the time of ovulation to the beginning of menstruation.

And women who have this generally have about five of these symptoms that we have in a list, and this is just a partial list, but could include depressed mood, anxiety, tension, decreased interest in activities, difficulty concentrating, lack of energy, and there are also physical symptoms, which could include weight gain, bloating, breast tenderness. And the way you distinguish between PMS and PMDD is by the severity of symptoms or much it interferes with the woman's day to day life.

Now the new treatment that the FDA just approved, Zoloft, is an antidepressant, and it's in a category called an SSRI. That is that it goes and replaces the serotonin in the brain.

And the good news here is that studies show it helps about 60 percent of women who suffered from the PMMD. And what's interesting about this drug is a woman can take it throughout the entire month or just for two weeks, just the two weeks where her symptoms begin.

So really, Paula, this provides a lot of hope out there for women who are suffering from this very severe form of PMS. ZAHN: If women don't want to go down this road, what are some other treatments they might want to try that could be pretty effective as well?

ROWLAND: There are actually other things that have been tried like diuretics, and vitamins, and those sorts of things, but they really haven't been proven to be effective. Actually, this antidepressant, Zoloft, is the second one that has been approved by the FDA to treat PMDD. The other is Prozac, and that was approved two years ago, and it does appear that other antidepressants, or other classes, do not work for PMDD.

So, Paula, really so far, just Zoloft and Prozac are the two medications, antidepressants that have been proven to actually work.

ZAHN: But isn't it also true sometimes you have these class of drugs that will work very well, let's say, for treating depression in one patient, and then you move on to another patient and it doesn't work at all. Does that possibility exist for Zoloft in women experiencing PMDD?

ROWLAND: Well, Paula, you are so right with that. With the antidepressants, Prozac may work great for one person and not work in another person. That's the exact same thing with PMMD. So that's what's really encouraging is that this class of drugs work, but just say, you try one of them and it doesn't, you could try perhaps another one. And there are some others out there like Selexa (ph) and Effexor (ph). So that's very encouraging. So go try one. If it doesn't work, you can try another.

And also, with these particular drugs, even though they're in the same class of drugs, they have different side effects in different women. So again, the same drug may not work in every single women, and there are other options out there.

ZAHN: And, Rhonda, before we let you go, quickly review once again what some of the most obvious symptoms are of people who are experiencing the most severe cases of PMS, which would I guess be the PMDD, right?

ROWLAND: That's exactly right. Well, irritability, and difficulty with relationships, not perhaps being able to go to work and cope with your working relationships, also perhaps having difficulty with your spouse, difficulty with your children. Now women who suffer from just regular PMS, you may not be able to go to work because you have severe cramps or severe headache. Well, with these women, they can't cope because of the emotional effects. So that really seems to be the hallmark. If this is something that you think that you suffer from, you can talk to your obstetrician or even go to a psychiatrist and see if you actually suffer from PMDD.

ZAHN: This is very good news indeed for women. It looks like they actually have some help, as you just described.

Thanks, Rhonda. Appreciate the house call.

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