Awareness, Prevalence and Drug Therapy of Pre-Menstrual Syndrome among the Women of Lahore, Pakistan

Author(s)

Zaka, M., Zaka, S.

Author's Affiliation

Abstract

Premenstrual syndrome is the combination of various symptoms appearing 3-7 days before every menstrual cycle and is experienced by most of the reproductive age women throughout the globe. A cross-sectional community based study was conducted on a randomly selected population of 1000 menstruating, non-pregnant women of age (15-45 yrs), from various places within Lahore; to determine the Awareness, Prevalence and Drug therapy of premenstrual syndrome. Demographic data, awareness about premenstrual symptoms; their impact on daily life, medicines taken to relieve symptoms and the trend of treatment seeking behaviour were recorded through interview. Data collection form were filled after taking verbal informed consent, results were analyzed on SPSS 15 by applying Pearson chi-square test .A very high 99.3% prevalence of PMS; with most frequent symptoms backache (77.7%), weakness (72.5%), abdominal pain (70.8%) irritability (70.7%), mood swings (66.3%) and anxiety (63.2%); was found among those women. 48.5% were aware of PMS. Premenstrual symptoms have an impact on quality of life of 75.8% of women. 54.8% take medicines for PMS.38.5% take self-medication and NSAIDS (34.6%) are taken most frequently. Hence Premenstrual syndrome is a common problem not even in the west but also in Pakistan. A large population of women here, having one or more premenstrual symptoms have an adverse impact of them on their daily lives. Changing lifestyle, modifying diet, exercises, stress reduction and provision of services by health providers, such as rational drug therapy and counselling by pharmacist can optimize Quality of life and overall health of women suffering from PMS.

Keywords

Premenstrual Syndrome, Awareness, Prevalence, Drug Therapy, Quality of Life

Cite This Article

Zaka, M., Zaka, S. (2015). Awareness, Prevalence and Drug Therapy of Pre-Menstrual Syndrome among the Women of Lahore, Pakistan, International Journal for Pharmaceutical Research Scholars (IJPRS), 4(3), 96-111.