Premenstrual schizophrenia?

I had a recent conversation with a member of local law enforcement in which we shared brief descriptions of family members with schizophrenia. (It was a friendly conversation, by the way, lest you think I was being arrested.) I told of my recent experiences and the challenges of emotional coping and trying to get help for this person.

Then he told of his first wife, who suffered from severe and violent mood swings that he felt endangered himself and their children. After several years of suffering through this, he explained, he divorced her and has now been in a happy, nonviolent second marriage for a number of years. I'm spotty on the details of this conversation, perhaps because my brain was so overwhelmed by how he concluded it. "You know, they've done research to show that three-quarters of all women have some kind of that schizophrenia PMS stuff."

Well, no. I did not know that. A) I did not know that three-quarters of all women suffered from the same mental illness, and B) (and here's the kicker) I also did not realize there was a single condition known as "that schizophrenia PMS stuff."

This explains a lot.

On one hand, it seems to explain why so many of the women I know are so damn insane -- although it does nothing to explain the comparable insanity among many of the men I know. (This, by the way, comes from my left hand, which possesses only very rudimentary motor skills and is essentially retarded.)

On the other hand (my much more intelligent, rational thinking right hand), this officer's statement goes a long way toward explaining why -- or maybe I should say illustrating how -- so many of the nation's mentally ill end up homeless or in prison, with few or no options for getting the kind of help they truly need. Here's a guy, authorized to carry a gun and decide who should and should not be taken to jail, and he doesn't know the difference between schizophrenia and PMS. Not only does he not fully grasp the details, he apparently doesn't even know that there is a difference. Our conversation was interrupted before I had a chance to try to correct him. But realistically, what could I have said to that?

I've read here and there about efforts by NAMI (the National Alliance on Mental Illness) to host educational seminars for law enforcement officers, in an effort to raise awareness about the mentally ill population. Good for them. And let's hope they get to this guy soon. I hate to think how he might react when his wife hits menopause.