Emotion-focused group therapy among women with premenstrual dysphoric disorder: A randomized clinical trial

OBJECTIVE Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD) contributes to couple burnout, reduced quality of life, sexual dysfunction, and social isolation. The present study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of emotion-focused group therapy (EFGT) in pain perception, self-compassion, sexual function, and couple burnout in women with PMDD. Method: Among married females with PMDD, 72 participants were selected and randomly assigned to experimental and waitlist control groups. EFGT was performed in 10 sessions for the subjects in the experimental groups. The McGill Pain Questionnaire, Self-Compassion Scale, Female Sexual Function Index and Couple Burnout Measure were used to collect data in the pre-test and post-test. To analyze the data, an analysis of covariance test was applied. Results: The findings demonstrated that EFGT was effective in pain perception (p