The influence of early life sexual abuse on oxytocin concentrations and premenstrual symptomatology in women with a menstrually related mood disorder

• Early life sexual abuse (ESA) moderates basal oxytocin (OT) levels in MRMD's.
• Basal OT levels are associated with premenstrual symptoms in MRMD women with ESA.
• OT may help to modulate premenstrual symptom severity in women with a MRMD and ESA.

Oxytocin (OT), associated with affiliation and social bonding, social salience, and stress/pain regulation, may play a role in the pathophysiology of stress-related disorders, including menstrually-related mood disorders (MRMD's). Adverse impacts of early life sexual abuse (ESA) on adult attachment, affective regulation, and pain sensitivity suggest ESA-related OT dysregulation in MRMD pathophysiology. We investigated the influence of ESA on plasma OT, and the relationship of OT to the clinical phenomenology of MRMD's. Compared to MRMD women without ESA (n = 40), those with ESA (n = 20) displayed significantly greater OT [5.39 pg/mL (SD, 2.4) vs. 4.36 pg/mL (SD, 1.1); t (58) = −2.26, p = 0.03]. In women with ESA, OT was significantly, inversely correlated with premenstrual psychological and somatic symptoms (r's = −0.45 to −0.64, p's < 0.05). The relationship between OT and premenstrual symptomatology was uniformly low and non-significant in women without ESA. In women with ESA, OT may positively modulate MRMD symptomatology.