Dataset Information

The Effects of a Life Stress Emotional Awareness and Expression Interview for Women with Chronic Urogenital Pain: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

Women with chronic urogenital pain (CUP) conditions have elevated rates of lifetime trauma, relational stress, and emotional conflicts, but directly assessing and treating psychological stress is rarely done in women's health care settings. We developed and tested the effects on patients' somatic and psychological symptoms of a life stress interview that encourages disclosure about stressors and uses experiential techniques to increase awareness of links between stress, emotions, and symptoms.

Methods

In this randomized trial, women with CUP recruited at a multidisciplinary women's urology center received either a single 90-minute life stress interview (N = 37) or no interview (treatment-as-usual control; N = 25). Self-report measures of pain severity (primary outcome), pain interference, pelvic floor symptoms, and psychological symptoms (anxiety and depression) were completed at baseline and six-week follow-up.

Results

Differences between the life stress interview and control conditions at follow-up were tested with analyses of covariance, controlling for baseline level of the outcome and baseline depression. Compared with the control condition, the interview resulted in significantly lower pain severity and pelvic floor symptoms, but the interview had no effect on pain interference or psychological symptoms.

Conclusions

An intensive life stress emotional awareness expression interview improved physical but not psychological symptoms among women with CUP seen in a tertiary care clinic. This study suggests that targeting stress and avoided emotions and linking them to symptoms may be beneficial for this complex group of patients.

SUBMITTER: Carty JN

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6611525 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

The Effects of a Life Stress Emotional Awareness and Expression Interview for Women with Chronic Urogenital Pain: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Carty Jennifer N JN Ziadni Maisa S MS Holmes Hannah J HJ Tomakowsky Janice J Peters Kenneth K Schubiner Howard H Lumley Mark A MA

Pain medicine (Malden, Mass.) 20190701 7

<h4>Objective</h4>Women with chronic urogenital pain (CUP) conditions have elevated rates of lifetime trauma, relational stress, and emotional conflicts, but directly assessing and treating psychological stress is rarely done in women's health care settings. We developed and tested the effects on patients' somatic and psychological symptoms of a life stress interview that encourages disclosure about stressors and uses experiential techniques to increase awareness of links between stress, emotion ...[more]

PMID: 30252113

Similar Datasets

Project description:ObjectiveEarly life abuse (ELAb) initiates pathophysiological cascades resulting in long-term maladaptive stress responsivity, hyperalgesia, and an increased risk of psychopathology. Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) is effective in modifying psychological and somatic symptoms; thus, we predicted that MBSR would be particularly efficacious for women with ELAb.MethodMedically healthy women (mean age = 31 years) with or without a history of early (≤13 years) physical or sexual abuse provided self-report measures and were tested in the laboratory before and after randomization to standard MBSR (n = 52) or social support (SSG) (n = 60) for 8 weeks. The laboratory procedure involved pain testing using the cold pressor and temporal summation of heat pain (indexing central sensitization) procedures, and exposure to the Trier Social Stress Test. Plasma cortisol in response to the experimental protocol was assessed as area under the curve (AUC).ResultsThe interventions differentially impacted pain sensitivity and cortisol AUC for women with ELAb, as MBSR increased the temporal summation of heat pain intensity ratings (p = .024) and reduced cortisol AUC (p = .004). For women without ELAb, MBSR decreased cold pressor tolerance (p = .045) and decreased the temporal summation of heat pain intensity ratings relative to SSG (p = .024). Both MBSR and SSG improved depression symptoms and emotion regulation abilities (p values < .001); however, MBSR was associated with greater benefits in describing emotions (p = .008) and impulse control (p = .017) for women with ELAb.ConclusionsWomen with ELAb benefited from MBSR-specific improvements in central sensitization, mindfulness skills, and emotion regulation abilities. This is the first study to examine the efficacy of MBSR in modifying affective and somatic symptoms based on ELAb status and provides evidence for considering ELAb in tailoring treatment approaches.Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01995916; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01995916.

Dataset Information

The Effects of a Life Stress Emotional Awareness and Expression Interview for Women with Chronic Urogenital Pain: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Objective

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Publications

The Effects of a Life Stress Emotional Awareness and Expression Interview for Women with Chronic Urogenital Pain: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Similar Datasets

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