title: Chronic pelvic pain.
abstract: The topic of chronic pelvic pain (CPP) has long been a frustrating one for physicians and patients alike, with difficulties in diagnosis and management leading to delays in recovery. Recent insights into the neurobiology of chronic pain disorders and into mechanisms of visceral pain suggest that significant advances in treatment of CPP are likely to occur during coming years. These insights suggest that we consider directing our treatment efforts away from the visceral organ presumed to be primarily responsible for the CPP and toward treatment of the neurologic mechanisms that sustain chronic pain.
authors.affiliation: Division of Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery, Loyola University Medical Center, Bldg 103, Room 1004, 2160 South First Avenue, Maywood, IL 60153, USA. mfitzg8@lumc.edu
authors.forename: Mary P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: FitzGerald
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015984:Causality; D002908:Chronic Disease; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D023421:Models, Animal; D009140:Musculoskeletal Diseases / Q000150:complications; D017288:Pain Threshold; D017773:Pelvic Floor / Q000503:physiopathology; D017699:Pelvic Pain / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000628:therapy; D010388:Pelvis / Q000294:innervation; D051381:Rats; D014570:Urologic Diseases / Q000150:complications