As i see it right now, a few actions can be beneficial:
Current Status: Current diagnostic methods for PMDD rely heavily on subjective self-reporting from patients, where they recall and describe their symptoms. This approach lacks objective measures to consistently demonstrate and verify symptom patterns.
Goal: Develop reliable, objective diagnostic tools to accurately identify and study patterns in PMDD.
Proposed Method #1:
Analyze written historical data
Analyze past communications on your device, including messages, emails, and social media interactions and posts. This process, which ensures your data remains on your device, identifies patterns based on metrics such as the number of messages sent and average response time. As well as more advanced insights from sentiment analysis of message content.
Proposed Method #2:
Analyze current speech data
This involves using discreet, privacy-preserving devices strategically placed in patients' homes and personal items, like a wearable listening device (for example, a necklace with recording capabilities). These devices will activate at random intervals to record speech, enabling us to capture and analyze speech patterns without any extra effort necessary on the patient’s part.
Current Status: Limited available congregated data from diverse populations on PMDD experiences and factors.
Goal: Develop a comprehensive, user-friendly web application to collect data from a broad population, both from individuals with PMDD and those without. By comparing their experiences and responses, we aim to identify patterns and potential protective factors against PMDD.
Method:
- The app will first prompt users to rate their PMDD symptoms, if any;
- Next, it presents various hypotheses for users to respond to, ensuring a wide range of data;
- Out of thousands of hypotheses, a user will see only a few, so they can quickly start adding data;
- The purpose is to analyze the data for correlations between certain factors and the presence or absence of PMDD symptoms.
Inspiration: Edward Jenner's 1796 observation that milkmaids seemed immune to smallpox (even though it had killed 300m people in the century before that), and the associated discovery of cowpox as a way to inoculate and vaccinate against smallpox. Similarly, by observing patterns in a large population, we hope to uncover natural protective factors against PMDD.
Current Status: Several studies have shown potential in understanding causes for PMDD, but they're limited by subjective diagnostic criteria and small participant groups, leading to inconclusive results.
Goal: Verifying previous research findings with more objective measures and larger sample sizes, to solidify the understanding of PMDD.
Example of studies:
- 2017, The ESC/E(Z) complex, an effector of response to ovarian steroids, manifests an intrinsic difference in cells from women with Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder, by Neelima Dubey
- 2021, Subgenual cingulate resting regional cerebral blood flow in premenstrual dysphoric disorder: differential regulation by ovarian steroids and preliminary evidence for an association with expression of ESC/E(Z) complex genes, by Shau-Ming Wei
- 2011, Prefrontal Brain Asymmetry and Pre-Menstrual Dysphoric Disorder Symptomatology, by Eynav E. Accortt
- Understand the interaction between peripheral inflammatory molecules and brain neurotransmitter systems in PMS/PMDD. There is a particular focus on neuroinflammation and its potential role in developing targeted anti-inflammatory therapies from Recent advances in understanding/management of PMDD/PMS, by Lara Tiranini
- 2020, Epigenetic intersection of BDNF Val66Met genotype with premenstrual dysphoric disorder transcriptome in a cross-species model of estradiol add-back, by Jordan Marrocco
Current Status: Current understanding suggests PMS/PMDD may have a sociogenic basis, but we lack extensive, replicable research to fully support this theory.
Goal: Investigate if PMDD is influenced by societal factors.
Current Status: Much of the existing research is rooted in outdated hormonal theories and views of menstruation and symptoms.
Goal: Exploring a wider spectrum of biological aspects & approaches to current hormonal theories, we aim to deepen our understanding and uncover new insights into PMDD.
Valuable Professionals To Work With:
- Gynecologists / Obstetricians: expertise in female reproductive health;
- Endocrinologists: investigating hormonal interactions;
- Neurologists / Neuroscientists: researching brain-behavior relationships;
- Molecular Biologist & Biochemist: assist in understanding the molecular and cellular basis of PMDD and PMS, including the study of genetic factors, protein interactions, and cellular responses;
- Geneticist: identifying potential genetic markers or predispositions;
- Epidemiologist: investigating patterns and causes in populations;
Contact: ariana@whypmdd.com