Effective Interventions for Idiopathic Chronic Pelvic Pain: A Systematic Review

Background Chronic pelvic pain (CPP) in women is a debilitating condition with symptoms that affect both medical and psychological systems, yet for those with idiopathic CPP (i.e., those without a known physiologic cause), no consensus for intervention exists. Aim A systematic review was conducted to identify the effectiveness of current biomedical, psychosocial, and integrative interventions for idiopathic CPP (ICPP).

Five databases (PubMed, CINAHL, Cochrane, PsycInfo, Web of Science) were systematically searched with multiple keywords for publications from 2008–2022. Articles were coded for sample characteristics, research design, type of intervention, and intervention outcomes.

Nineteen studies met criteria. The majority of the interventions (14 studies) were biomedical, either invasive (e.g., injections), or non-invasive (e.g., medications). Five studies evaluated integrative interventions that combined biomedical and psychosocial components (e.g., a multimodal pain treatment center). Invasive biomedical interventions were better at relieving short-term pain and non-invasive biomedical interventions were superior for long-term pain; integrated interventions reduced both short-term and long-term pain. Integrative interventions also improved mental health, sexual health, and QOL.

Although most interventions for ICPP have been biomedical, integrative interventions showed greater outcome effectiveness, suggesting a focus on integrative interventions in the future. Similar content being viewed by others Availability of Data and Materials The authors have full control of all primary data and agree to allow the journal to review their data upon request.

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The authors thank Nicole Aglialoro for her help with coding, fact-checking, and references. Funding No funding was obtained for this review. Author information Authors and Affiliations Contributions The authors confirm contributions to the paper as follows: MRW: Study conception and design; data collection; analysis and interpretation of results; manuscript preparation. TAR, JSF, and ANK: Analysis and interpretation of results; manuscript preparation. Corresponding author Ethics declarations Ethical Approval For this type of study, formal consent is not required. Informed Consent As human subjects were not recruited for this review, informed consent was not obtained. Research Involving Human Participants This article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors. Competing Interests The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. Additional information Publisher's Note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Supplementary Information Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material. Rights and permissions Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law. About this article Cite this article Wirtz, M.R., Revenson, T.A., Ford, J.S. et al. Effective Interventions for Idiopathic Chronic Pelvic Pain: A Systematic Review. Int.J. Behav. Med. 31, 819–832 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12529-024-10309-y Accepted: Published: Version of record: Issue date: DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12529-024-10309-y