The proposed study aims to benefit women with vulvodynia. This newly identified women health problem may affect as many as 15 percent of women who seek gynecological care, yet little attention is given to this condition and it is frequently dismissed as psychosomatic. In 1998, the National Institute of Health called for systematic epidemiologic, etiologic, and therapeutic studies of vulvodynia. The purpose of the present study is to address the need identified by the NIH, and assess the efficacy of a psychosocial treatment for vulvodynia. The primary aim of the present study is to evaluate the efficacy of a well-established psychosocial intervention, i.e. cognitive-behavioral therapy that has been shown to decrease pain severity, disability, and affective distress for various chronic pain conditions. The study will test the hypothesis that cognitive-behavioral therapy, relative to supportive psychotherapy, will result in substantial improvement in pain, severity, disability, and affective distress. The proposed study is a randomized two-treatment condition CBT versus supportive psychotherapy by three evaluation period (pretreatment, post-treatment, and six-month follow-up), repeated measures, and factorial design. Sixty participants with vulvodynia will be randomly assigned to either CBT or Support for 10 weeks. Empirically supported outcome measures will be used to assess pain severity, disability, and affective distress. Medication and healthcare use, global improvement, and sexual activity will also be measured. Research findings from this study, in particular with the use of empirically supported treatment outcome measures, may serve as background for the planning of larger comparative studies. Clinically, results from this study may provide a justified treatment option for women with vulvodynia.
| Masheb, Robin M; Kerns, Robert D; Lozano, Christine et al. (2009) A randomized clinical trial for women with vulvodynia: Cognitive-behavioral therapy vs. supportive psychotherapy. Pain 141:31-40 |
| Masheb, Robin M; Lozano, Christine; Richman, Susan et al. (2004) On the reliability and validity of physician ratings for vulvodynia and the discriminant validity of its subtypes. Pain Med 5:349-58 |
| Masheb, Robin M; Lozano-Blanco, Christine; Kohorn, Ernest I et al. (2004) Assessing sexual function and dyspareunia with the Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI) in women with vulvodynia. J Sex Marital Ther 30:315-24 |
