Affiliation:
1. Health Psychology Section, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience (IoPPN), King’s College London, London, UK
2. St. John’s Institute of Dermatology, Guy’s & St. Thomas’s NHS Foundation Trust, Guy’s Hospital, London, UK
3. INPUT Pain Management Unit, Guy’s and St. Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK
4. Department of Psychology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
Abstract
Abstract
Objective
Psychosocial factors are related to pain and sex-related outcomes in provoked vulvodynia and possibly in mixed and spontaneous vulvodynia. However, a broader behavioral framework, such as the psychological flexibility model, has received limited attention in this context. Recently, additional psychosocial variables have also emerged that appear relevant to vulvodynia, including perceived injustice, body-exposure anxiety during intercourse, and unmitigated sexual communion. The present study applied network analysis to explore relations between psychological flexibility, newly emerging psychosocial variables relevant to vulvodynia, and their associations with vulvodynia outcomes. The study also explored potential differences across vulvodynia subtypes.
Design
An online cross-sectional study of 349 participants with vulvodynia (112 provoked, 237 spontaneous/mixed) was carried out.
Methods
Participants completed self-report questionnaires, including questions on pain and sexual outcomes, depression, facets of psychological flexibility, body-exposure anxiety during intercourse, unmitigated sexual communion, and perceived injustice. Networks were computed for the total sample and for provoked and mixed/spontaneous vulvodynia subsamples.
Results
Perceived injustice, pain acceptance, and depression were “central” factors among the included variables, in all models. Psychological flexibility processes were relevant for all networks. Depression was more central in the network for mixed/spontaneous vulvodynia; body-exposure anxiety during intercourse was most central for the provoked subtype.
Conclusions
Among the included variables, perceived injustice, pain acceptance, depression, and psychological flexibility appear to be important in vulvodynia. As different factors are significant across subtypes, tailored treatment approaches are suggested.
Funder
National Institute for Health Research
Biomedical Research Centre at South London and Maudsley
National Health Service
NHS
NIHR
Department of Health and Social Care
Publisher
Oxford University Press (OUP)
Subject
Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine,Neurology (clinical),General Medicine
Cited by
4 articles.
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