When Tory Eisenlohr-Moul was training as a therapist, she saw people who had chronic suicidal thoughts — thoughts that would abruptly change from week to week. But when one of Eisenlohr-Moul’s patients mentioned her menstrual cycle was impacting her symptoms, the clinical psychologist homed in on how menses might be part of the equation.
“I started having people track their mood symptoms against their menstrual cycle and it seemed, for a lot of my patients, this was a really important reason that their suicidal thoughts and depression were changing week to week,” said the associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Illinois Chicago. “I thought if we had some evidence that this was common then maybe we could do something about it.”
Eisenlohr-Moul led researchers to study how suicidal thoughts fluctuate across the menstrual cycle. The result is a longitudinal study, published in the American Journal of Psychiatry in December, where Eisenlohr-Moul, postdoctoral researcher and clinical psychologist Jaclyn Ross, and M.D. and Ph.D. student Jordan Barone followed 119 female patients who tracked their suicidal thoughts and mental health symptoms daily over at least one menstrual cycle. They found that female patients with a history of suicidality experience an increased risk of suicidal ideation or suicidal planning in the days surrounding menstruation.
The researchers defined suicidal ideation as thinking: “I wish I could go to sleep and never wake up; I might be better off dead.” Suicidal planning is thinking about how and when someone might kill themself and what methods to use. Planning gets more specific and is more active than ideation.
Barone said data from female patients was found and surveyed in clinical trials in Chicago and North Carolina. Study participants had to have a regular menstrual cycle, not be on birth control pills or have a hormonal intrauterine device, and not have been recently pregnant.
The patients were asked a list…
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