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Psychosomatic Medicine 33:411-428 (1971)
© 1971 American Psychosomatic Society

The Menstrual Cycle: A Double-Blind Study of Symptoms, Mood and Behavior, and Biochemical Variables Using Enovid and Placebo

SAM SILBERGELD PhD, MD1, NEIL BRAST BS2, and ERNEST P. NOBLE PhD, MD3

1 Department of Psychiatry, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, Calif.; Laboratory of Clinical Science, Clinical Center, NIMH, Bethesda, Md.
2 Department of Psychiatry, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, Calif.; Department of Physiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, Calif.
3 Department of Psychiatry, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, Calif.; Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, College of Medicine, University of California, Irvine, Calif.

Ernest P. Noble, PhD, MD, Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, College of Medicine, University of California, Irvine, Calif 92664

Enovid and a placebo were administered, in a double-blind crossover design, to 8 women volunteers for four cycles each. Throughout six phases of the cycle, data were collected on 120 symptom, mood and behavior, and biochemical variables. Mood and behavior were assessed using self-rating, interview rating and free association test (FAT). Thirteen of the variables showed cyclic variation independent of drug treatment. The fluctuations observed during placebo cycles were consistent with Benedek and Rubinstein's classic somatopsychic model of the sexual cycle in women. Enovid treatment resulted in shorter and more regular cycles, some relief of menstrual symptoms, certain somatic side effects, tranquilization, increased total plasma cortisol, slightly decreased basal plasma free fatty acid, and no change in urinary catecholamine levels. Enovid also eliminated the cyclic variation in FAT Anxiety observed during placebo cycles. The three methods of behavioral assessment produced scores which were, at best, only weakly correlated.

Submitted on July 20, 1970
Revised on March 5, 1971




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Premenstrual symptoms: a reinterpretation
Science, July 15, 1977; 197(4300): 291 - 292.
[Abstract] [PDF]


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