Contributions of physical and sexual abuse to women's experiences with chronic pelvic pain

Poleshuck EL, Ellen L Poleshuck, Ellen Poleshuck, Dworkin RH, Robert H. Dworkin, Fred M. Howard, Howard FM, Foster DC, David C. Foster, Cleveland G. Shields, Shields CG, Donna E. Giles, Giles DE, Xin Tu, Tu X
The Journal of reproductive medicine · 2005 · vol. 50(2) , pp. 91–100 · PMID:15755045 · PMC6516755 · W2263929994
Observational OA: closed CC0 ⤵ 14 in-corpus citations
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This study found that physical and sexual abuse are associated with psychological distress in women with chronic pelvic pain but not with pain severity, physical functioning, or coping.

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Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To examine the roles of physical and sexual abuse in women with chronic pelvic pain using multi-dimensional pain assessment and to compare the chronic pelvic pain experiences of women with physical abuse to those of women with sexual abuse. STUDY DESIGN: Structured questionnaires were used to measure self-reported abuse, pain severity, psychological distress, physical functioning, interpersonalfunctioning, and coping in 63 women attending a tertiary care gynecologic clinic for diagnosis and treatment of chronic pelvic pain. RESULTS: Women with chronic pelvic pain who reported abuse demonstrated significantly more psychological distress than did women who reported no abuse, but there were no differences in pain severity, physical functioning, interpersonal functioning or coping. Women with physical abuse reported more overall psychological distress, depression, anxiety and somatization than women who reported no physical abuse. Women who reported sexual abuse showed more overall psychological distress and anxiety than women who reported no sexual abuse. While physical abuse was more consistently associated with psychological distress than was sexual abuse, both types of abuse were risk factors for distress. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that both physical and sexual abuse are associated with psychological distress in women with chronic pelvic pain but not with other domains of pain experience. Additional research to improve identification and treatment of women with both chronic pelvic pain and abuse is indicated.

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Condition tags

chronic_pelvic_pain

MeSH descriptors

Pelvic Pain Sex Offenses Spouse Abuse Adult Aged Age Distribution Analysis of Variance Case-Control Studies Chronic Disease Cohort Studies Female Follow-Up Studies Humans Incidence Middle Aged Pain Measurement Pelvic Pain Pelvic Pain Pelvic Pain Probability

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References (34)

Cited by (12)

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License: CC0 · commercial use OK