Openai/69129290-140c-8005-84d5-beb8383f8282

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User: I’ve been reading and enjoying ‘map of consciousness’ by David Hawkins for a few days now.

I’ve been reading and enjoying ‘map of consciousness’ by David Hawkins for a few days now. There is a study he references to based on ‘a group of women that was told that they would be given a hormone injection to bring on their menstrual periods two weeks early. Actually they were merely given a placebo injection of saline’ where 70% of women developed early premenstrual tension. It sounds fascinating and I would love to read the original study. Does anyone know where I might find it? Thanks!

Assistant: That’s a fascinating reference — and you’re right to want to dig into the original study.

That’s a fascinating reference — and you’re right to want to dig into the original study. I wasn’t able to locate exactly the described experiment (women told they’d receive a hormone injection two weeks early and 70% developed pre-menstrual tension) in readily accessible published literature. But I found some close leads and suggestions to help you track it down:

🔍 What I found

• There is a well-documented paper titled “Open-label placebo treatment of women with premenstrual syndrome” by Nascimento et al. (2020). It doesn’t match the described injection/expectation experiment, but it is a rigorous placebo study in the PMS domain. PMC
• A more recent trial (March 2025) from University of Basel investigated open-label placebos in PMS (150 women aged 18-45) and found large symptom reductions. ScienceDaily
• There is a classic sociological/expectancy-effect type study: a paper notes that women told a study was about menstrual symptoms reported more symptoms than those not told. For example: “AuBuchon & Calhoun (1985) … women who were told about the menstrual cycle aspect of the study reported significantly more … symptoms.” ETSU Faculty
• The researcher Katharina Dalton is significant in the history of PMS research (coined the term, etc). Wikipedia

🧩 Why the exact study may be hard to track

• The description (“women told they would be given a hormone injection to bring on their periods two weeks early, but they were only given a saline placebo, and 70% developed early premenstrual tension”) suggests a deception or expectancy-manipulation study (i.e., the belief induced the effect). These types of studies, especially older ones, may not have been published in easily searchable journals, or may be described in books/monographs rather than peer-reviewed journals.

It may be referenced by David R. Hawkins (in Map of Consciousness) in a secondary way (as anecdote or summary) rather than a citation of a formal peer-reviewed paper. Thus the exact wording may differ.

• Ethical standards around deception in human subjects have tightened over time; so older studies with such deceptions may be out of print or less cited.

✅ What you can do to track it down

• Look up all the bibliographic footnotes or end-notes in the section of “Map of Consciousness” where Hawkins mentions it. See if he gives a study name, authors, or year.
• Search databases (PubMed, PsycINFO, Google Scholar) using keywords like: “premenstrual tension”, “expectancy”, “saline injection”, “hormone injection”, “placebo”, “menstrual cycle experiment”.
• Search older female-hormone/menstrual cycle literature from the 1950s-1970s: PMS was first widely discussed in those decades (Dalton’s work for example).
• Check books on PMS history (especially those discussing psychological/sociological aspects, not just hormonal). E.g., see the PDF of “A Sociological Analysis of Premenstrual Syndrome”. ETSU Faculty
• If you have access to a university library, ask a librarian for older journals (e.g., Psychosomatic Medicine, Journal of Psychosomatic Research, British Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology).
• Possibly reach out to Hawkins’ sources: if he lists a bibliography, you might locate the original article via interlibrary loan.

If you like, I can attempt a deeper archival search (going back to older literature, non-digital journals, etc.) to find that specific experiment you referenced (the “70% developed early PMS” one) and see if a full citation exists (author, journal, year). Would you like me to proceed with that?