When faced with this monograph on the premenstrual syndrome, this reviewer felt some guilt from under-concern for those symptoms observed by 40% of women in the menstruating years. Weight gain, vague abdominal pain, and irritability during the week or so before menstruation are frequently referred to as premenstrual tension. If treatment is offered (but frequently it is declined), there is prompt amelioration from an oral diuretic and modest dietary sodium restriction during the last week of the menstrual cycle. After reading this text, it seems instead that the author might be more likely reprehensible for an extraordinary solicitude.
Some appreciation of the author's enthusiasm for the association of the "premenstrual syndrome" with various clinical states can be gained from the chapter on symptoms. This includes psychological, neurological, respiratory, gastrointestinal, urinary, musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, dermatological, breast, and eye changes. The omnipresence of premenstrual syndrome is attested to by the chapters "The Effect