Risks of major affective disorders following a diagnosis of premenstrual dysphoric disorder: A nationwide longitudinal study

Whether a history of premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) is associated with a subsequent risk of major affective disorders remains unclear. This study aimed to examine the risk of unipolar depression and bipolar disorder in women with PMDD compared with those without PMDD. This study used data from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database. Women who were diagnosed with PMDD and had no history of any major affective disorder were included. The controls were women without PMDD matched for demographics and physical and psychiatric comorbidities. Cox regression was used to estimate the risk of unipolar depression and bipolar disorder. We included 8222 women with PMDD and 32,888 matched controls. After adjusting for potential confounders, we found that the women with PMDD were associated with a higher risk of unipolar depression [hazard ratio (HR) 2.58; 95 % confidence interval (CI), 2.23–2.98] and bipolar disorder (HR 2.50; 95 % CI 1.62–3.88) than the controls. The PMDD group had a younger age at the diagnosis of unipolar depression (37.11 vs 41.59 years) and bipolar disorder (35.59 vs 42.02 years, p = 0.002), and shorter duration between enrollment and onset of unipolar depression (2.97 vs 5.33 years, p < 0.001) and bipolar disorder (3.05 vs 5.57 years, p < 0.001). Our results showed a strong association between PMDD and major affective disorders. Healthcare workers should be aware of patients with PMDD and the risk of developing major affective mental disorders.