Evidence against multiple premenstrual syndromes: results of a multivariate profile analysis of premenstrual symptomatology.

The topic of a single vs multiple premenstrual syndromes has generated much discussion. In this study, multivariate profile analysis was used to determine whether or not physical and affective symptoms associated with the premenstrual syndrome (PMS) could be explained as the manifestation of one underlying pathophysiologic process. The premenstrual symptom profiles of 820 undergraduate students and 485 graduate students were evaluated. It was not possible to reject the null hypothesis of parallel profiles in most comparisons, suggesting that variability in the severity of premenstrual symptoms may be the result of individual differences in the expression of one underlying pathophysiologic process.