Samir Khalifé

A randomized comparison of group cognitive--behavioral therapy, surface electromyographic biofeedback, and vestibulectomy in the treatment of dyspareunia resulting from vulvar vestibulitis.

&NA; This study compared group cognitive–behavioral therapy (12‐week trial), surface electromyographic biofeedback (12‐week trial), and vestibulectomy in the treatment of dyspareunia resulting from vulvar vestibulitis. Subjects were 78 women randomly assigned to one of three treatment conditions and assessed at pretreatment, posttreatment and 6‐month follow‐up via gynecological examinations, structured interviews and standard questionnaires pertaining to pain (Pain Rating Index and Sensory scale of the McGill Pain Questionnaire, vestibular pain index, pain during intercourse), sexual function (Sexual History Form, frequency of intercourse, Information subscale of the Derogatis Sexual Functioning Inventory), and psychological adjustment (Brief Symptom Inventory). As compared with pretreatment, study completers of all treatment groups reported statistically significant reductions on pain measures at posttreatment and 6‐month follow‐up, although the vestibulectomy group was significantly more successful than the two other groups. However, the apparent superiority of vestibulectomy needs to be interpreted with caution since seven women who had been assigned to this condition did not go ahead with the intervention. All three groups significantly improved on measures of psychological adjustment and sexual function from pretreatment to 6‐month follow‐up. Intent‐to‐treat analysis supported the general pattern of results of analysis by‐treatment‐received. Findings suggest that women with dyspareunia can benefit from both medical and behavioral interventions.

Vestibular tactile and pain thresholds in women with vulvar vestibulitis syndrome.

&NA; Vulvar vestibulitis syndrome (VVS) is a common cause of dyspareunia in pre‐menopausal women. Little is known about sensory function in the vulvar vestibule, despite Kinseys assertion that it is important for sexual sensation. We examined punctate tactile and pain thresholds to modified von Frey filaments in the genital region of women with VVS and age‐ and contraceptive‐matched pain‐free controls. Women with VVS had lower tactile and pain thresholds around the vulvar vestibule and on the labium minus than controls, and these results were reliable over time. Women with VVS also had lower tactile, punctate pain, and pressure‐pain tolerance over the deltoid muscle on the upper arm, suggesting that generalized systemic hypersensitivity may contribute to VVS in some women. In testing tactile thresholds, 20% of trials were blank, and there was no group difference in the false positive rate, indicating that response bias cannot account for the lower thresholds. Women with VVS reported significantly more catastrophizing thoughts related to intercourse pain, but there was no difference between groups in catastrophizing for unrelated pains. Pain intensity ratings for stimuli above the pain threshold increased in a parallel fashion with log stimulus intensity in both groups, but the ratings of distress were substantially greater in the VVS group than in controls at equivalent levels of pain intensity. The data imply that VVS may reflect a specific pathological process in the vestibular region, superimposed on systemic hypersensitivity to tactile and pain stimuli.

Biopsychosocial profile of women with dyspareunia

Objective To compare biopsychologic profiles of women with dyspareunia with a matched no-pain control sample, and to determine whether dyspareunia subtypes based on physical findings have different psychosocial profiles from matched controls. Methods One hundred and five women with dyspareunia and 105 matched no-pain control women underwent standard gynecologic examination, endovaginal ultrasound, and colposcopy. They also completed a structured interview inquiring about pain other than dyspareunia, sexual function, and history of abuse, the Brief Symptom Inventory, the Sexual Opinion survey, and the Locke-Wallace Marital Adjustment Scale. Results In comparison with women who do not experience pain with intercourse, the dyspareunia sample was found to have more physical pathology on examination, and they reported more psychologic symptomatology, more negative attitudes toward sexuality, higher levels of impairment in sexual function, and lower levels of marital adjustment. They did not report more current or past physical or sexual abuse. However, when the undifferentiated dyspareunia sample was divided into subtypes based on physical findings from the gynecologic examinations, the pattern of significant differences from controls varied according to dyspareunia subtype. Elevated psychologic symptomatology and relationship maladjustment were confined to the subtype with no discernible physical findings who reported levels of sexual function not significantly different from matched controls. The vulvar vestibulitis subtype suffered the highest levels of sexual impairment although this subtype was not characterized by higher levels of psychologic symptoms than controls. Conclusion As an undifferentiated group, women with dyspareunia have more physical pathology, psychologic distress, sexual dysfunction, and relationship problems. However, this pattern of differences appears to vary depending on the presence and type of physical findings evident on examination. Dyspareunia is a heterogeneous disorder requiring comprehensive gynecologic and psychosocial assessment to determine differentiated treatment strategies.

Etiological Correlates of Vaginismus: Sexual and Physical Abuse, Sexual Knowledge, Sexual Self-Schema, and Relationship Adjustment

This study investigated the role of sexual and physical abuse, sexual self-schema, sexual functioning, sexual knowledge, relationship adjustment, and psychological distress in 87 women matched on age, relationship status, and parity and assigned to 3 groups- vaginismus, dyspareunia/vulvar vestibulitis syndrome (VVS), and no pain. More women with vaginismus reported a history of childhood sexual interference, and women in both the vaginismus and VVS groups reported lower levels of sexual functioning and a less positive sexual self-schema. Lack of support for traditionally held hypotheses concerning etiological correlates of vaginismus and the relationship between vaginismus and dyspareunia are discussed.

When sex hurts, anxiety and fear orient attention towards pain

Hypervigilance for pain‐relevant stimuli has been associated with anxiety, fear of pain and anxiety sensitivity. This attentional bias has been primarily investigated in heterogeneous pain groups or pain‐free controls, but has not been examined in pain conditions where anxiety and fear are likely to play a central role. Due to the intimate and interpersonal nature of genital pain experienced during sexual intercourse, Vulvar Vestibulitis Syndrome (VVS) constitutes an ideal sample in which to investigate the role of cognitive and affective factors in pain perception and maintenance. Seventeen women suffering from VVS and an equal number of age and education matched control women completed an emotional Stroop and memory recall task in addition to a series of questionnaires assessing pain‐hypervigilance, state and trait anxiety, fear of pain, and anxiety sensitivity. VVS sufferers reported hypervigilance for coital pain and also exhibited a selective attentional bias towards pain stimuli on the emotional Stroop task as compared with controls. This effect was predicted by state and trait anxiety and fear of pain. According to these data, treament strategies for VVS should target anxiety and fear in addition to sensory systems.

Neural correlates of painful genital touch in women with vulvar vestibulitis syndrome

Vulvar vestibulitis syndrome (VVS) is a common cause of dyspareunia in pre‐menopausal women. Recent evidence points to the importance of the sensory component in VVS, particularly the heightened processing of tactile and pain sensation in the vulvar vestibule. The goal of the present study was to examine the neural basis of heightened sensitivity to touch (i.e. allodynia) in women with VVS. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we compared regions of neural activity in 14 women with VVS and 14 age‐ and contraceptive‐matched control women in response to the application of mild and moderate pressure to the posterior portion of the vulvar vestibule. Intensity and unpleasantness ratings were recorded after each scan; these ratings were significantly higher for women with VVS than controls. All women with VVS described moderate pressure as painful and unpleasant, and 6 of the 14 women with VVS described mild pressure as painful and unpleasant. In contrast, none of the stimuli was painful for control women. Correspondingly, women with VVS showed more significant activations during pressure levels that they found to be either painful or non‐painful than did controls during comparable pressure levels. During pressure described as painful by women with VVS, they had significantly higher activation levels in the insular and frontal cortical regions than did control women. These results suggest that women with VVS exhibit an augmentation of genital sensory processing, which is similar to that observed for a variety of syndromes causing hypersensitivity, including fibromyalgia, idiopathic back pain, irritable bowel syndrome, and neuropathic pain.

Physical Therapy for Vulvar Vestibulitis Syndrome: A Retrospective Study

This retrospective study evaluated the effectiveness of physical therapy in relieving painful intercourse and improving sexual function in women diagnosed with vulvar vestibulitis. This syndrome is a frequent cause of premenopausal dyspareunia and is characterized by a sharp, burning pain located within and limited to the vulvar vestibule (vaginal entry) and elicited primarily via pressure applied to the area. Participants were 35 women with vulvar vestibulitis who took part in physical therapy treatment for an average of 7 sessions. We conducted telephone interviews to assess whether physical therapy or other subsequent treatments impacted on pain during intercourse and sexual functioning. Length of treatment follow up ranged from 2 to 44 months, with a mean of 16 months. Physical therapy yielded a complete or great improvement for 51.4% of participants, a moderate improvement for 20.0% of participants, and little to no improvement for the other 28.6%. Treatment resulted in a significant decrease in pain experienced both during intercourse and gynecological examinations; it also resulted in a significant increase in intercourse frequency and levels of sexual desire and arousal. Successful patients were significantly less educated than nonsuccessful patients. Findings demonstrate that physical therapy is a promising treatment modality for dyspareunia associated with vulvar vestibulitis.

Dyspareunia: sexual dysfunction or pain syndrome?

This study investigated the clinical attributes of dyspareunia and the variables used to classify it. A systematic clinical description of the pain symptomatology was obtained through the administration of a structured interview and standardized pain measures to 112 women suffering from dyspareunia, ranging in age from 19 to 65. Subjects also underwent three different gynecological examinations and completed standardized measures of psychopathology, marital adjustment, and sexual attitudes, the results of which were used to test the ability of three different classification systems, including the DSM-IV, to predict physical and psychosocial outcomes. Using classification analysis, temporal pattern and location of the pain were found to be the best predictors of physical diagnoses, although none of the taxa in the three classification systems tested were related to psychosocial outcomes. Sexual impairment of women suffering from dyspareunia notwithstanding, the results support the consideration of dyspareunia as primarily a pain syndrome, rather than a sexual dysfunction.

Fear Avoidance and Self-efficacy in Relation to Pain and Sexual Impairment in Women With Provoked Vestibulodynia

BackgoundProvoked vestibulodynia is believed to be the most frequent cause of vulvodynia in women of childbearing age, with prevalence rates of up to 12% in the general population. Despite this high prevalence and the fact that vestibulodynia impacts negatively on quality of life, in particular sexual functioning, there has been a paucity of sound research to elucidate the conditions etiology. More specifically, few studies have focused on the role of psychologic factors in the experience of vulvo-vaginal pain and associated sexual impairment. ObjectivesThe present study aimed to determine the extent to which fear avoidance variables (catastrophizing, anxiety, fear of pain, hypervigilance) and self-efficacy differentially influenced changes in levels of induced and intercourse pain and also associated sexual dysfunction in these women. MethodsData were obtained from 75 vestibulodynia participants who completed a gynecologic examination, structured interview, and standardized questionnaires. ResultsThe results of regression analyses revealed that higher catastrophizing, fear of pain, and hypervigilance in addition to lower self-efficacy together accounted for 15% of the variation in increased intercourse pain intensity. Among these, only catastrophizing contributed unique variance to intercourse pain. Results also showed that higher state anxiety and fear of pain (escape/avoidance) and also lower self-efficacy explained 22% of the variation in womens sexual impairment. However, only self-efficacy was found to be an independent correlate of sexual impairment. ConclusionFindings support a theoretical model of vestibulodynia as a pain disorder influenced among others by cognitive and affective factors.

Surgical and Behavioral Treatments for Vestibulodynia: Two-and-one-half–year Follow-up and Predictors of Outcome

OBJECTIVE: To estimate whether treatment gains for provoked vestibulodynia participants randomly assigned to vestibulectomy, biofeedback, and cognitive–behavioral therapy in a previous study would be maintained from the last assessment—a 6-month follow-up—to the present 2.5-year follow-up. Although all three treatments yielded significant improvements at 6-month follow-up, vestibulectomy resulted in approximately twice the pain reduction as compared with the two other treatments. A second goal of the present study was to identify predictors of outcome. METHODS: In a university hospital, 51 of the 78 women from the original study were reassessed 2.5 years after the end of their treatment. They completed 1) a gynecologic examination involving the cotton-swab test, 2) a structured interview, and 3) validated pain and sexual functioning measures. RESULTS: Results from the multivariate analysis of variance conducted on the pain measures showed a significant time main effect (P<.05) and a significant treatment main effect (P<.01), indicating that participants had less pain at the 2.5-year follow-up than at the previous 6-month follow-up. Results from the multivariate analysis of variance conducted on sexual functioning measures showed that participants remained unchanged between the 6-month and 2.5-year follow-up and that there were no group differences. Higher pretreatment pain intensity predicted poorer outcomes at the 2.5-year follow-up for vestibulectomy (P<.01), biofeedback (P<.05), and cognitive–behavioral therapy (P<.01). Erotophobia also predicted a poorer outcome for vestibulectomy (P<.001). CONCLUSION: Treatment gains were maintained at the 2.5-year follow-up. Outcome was predicted by pretreatment pain and psychosexual factors. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: II