IS CONFLICT RESOLUTION IN WOMEN RELATED TO TRAIT AGGRESSION AND MENSTRUAL CYCLE PHASE?
Bond, A., Hiraki, L. and Wingrove, J. Section of Clinical Psychopharmacology, Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College London, UK. Premenstrual changes, involving both physical and psychological symptoms, are well documented. However, a subset of women complain of severe premenstrual disturbance of mood which is categorised as premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) within DSM-IV. The diagnostic criteria for PMDD require that the symptoms are of sufficient severity to impair normal social or occupational functioning. Some of the common symptoms associated with PMDD are low mood, tension, anger and irritability. In order to investigate if such mood changes are related to an increase in interpersonal conflict, including changes in aggression, the Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS) was administered on 3 occasions. The CTS was designed to measure the use of Reasoning, Verbal Aggression and Violence within the family. It was administered in two versions, one asked about behaviour over the past year
