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


METHODS
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.


CONCLUSIONS
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.
Poleshuck
Ellen L
EL
Wynne Center for Family Research, Department of Psychiatry, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, New York 14642, USA. ellen_poleshuck@urmc.rochester.edu
Dworkin
Robert H
RH
Howard
Fred M
FM
Foster
David C
DC
Shields
Cleveland G
CG
Giles
Donna E
DE
Tu
Xin
X
D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002908:Chronic Disease; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008875:Middle Aged; D010147:Pain Measurement; D017699:Pelvic Pain / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D011336:Probability; D012016:Reference Values; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012742:Sex Offenses / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013179:Spouse Abuse / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013315:Stress, Psychological; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires