Use of the McGill Pain Questionnaire to compare women with vulvar pain, pelvic pain and headaches.
OBJECTIVE
To assess differences between women with three distinct types of chronic pain conditions using a modified McGill Pain Questionnaire.


METHODS
Data by self-administered questionnaire were collected on patients presenting to the University of Michigan Medical Center with chronic vulvar pain (144 patients), pelvic pain (198 patients) or headaches (130 patients). Data for analysis included: patient demographics, duration of pain and modified McGill Pain Questionnaire scores. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed.


RESULTS
Patients with vulvar pain had more formal education (P < .001), were more likely to be married (P < .001) and were less likely to be African American (P = .003) as compared to those with chronic pelvic pain and headaches. Chronic pelvic pain patients were younger than those in the other two groups (P = .002), and headache patients were likely to have had their chronic pain for a shorter duration than those with vulvar or pelvic pain (P < .001). Patients with vulvar pain had lower total scores on the McGill Pain Questionnaire as well as on the four subsets of variables: affective, sensory, cognitive and miscellaneous indexes (P < .001). They also chose fewer words to describe their symptoms from the 20-word lists (P < .001) and had lower average scores in each of the 20 categories as compared to the other two groups (P < .0001). Controlling for age, ethnicity and marital status did not alter this significance.


CONCLUSIONS
Patients with vulvar pain were a unique groups when compared to other chronic pain populations. Evaluation of the demographics and McGill Pain Questionnaire scores confirmed the distinct qualities of women with vulvar pain.
Haefner
H K
HK
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Michigan Hospitals, University of Michigan Health System, Ann Arbor 48109, USA. haefner@umich.edu
Khoshnevisan
M H
MH
Bachman
J E
JE
Flowe-Valencia
H D
HD
Green
C R
CR
Reed
B D
BD
D000367:Age Factors; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006261:Headache / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D008393:Marriage; D010146:Pain / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology; D010147:Pain Measurement / Q000379:methods*; D017699:Pelvic Pain / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014845:Vulvar Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology