Tag Archives: cognitive-behavioral therapy

Cognitive-Behavioral Couple Therapy Provided Pain Relief from Vulvar Pain

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PainRelief.com Interview with:
Sophie Bergeron, Ph.D.
Canada Research Chair in Intimate Relationships and Sexual Wellbeing
Past-President, Society for Sex Therapy and Research
Professeure titulaire/Professor
Département de psychologie 
Université de Montréal 

Dr. Bergeron

PainRelief.com:  What is the background for this study?

Response: Chronic pain problems involving the female reproductive system are major health concerns in women of all ages. As conditions which are poorly understood and often misdiagnosed or ignored, they entail a great personal cost to patients and a significant financial cost to society.

One such condition is vulvodynia, or chronic unexplained vulvar pain. Up to 8% of women under 40 may experience idiopathic vulvar pain during their lifetimes. Provoked vestibulodynia (PVD) – an acute recurrent pain localized within the vulvar vestibule and experienced primarily during sexual intercourse – is suspected to be the most frequent cause of vulvodynia in premenopausal women.

Despite its high prevalence and negative impact on psychosexual functioning of both affected women and their partners, there has been a paucity of controlled research to provide empirically validated treatments for afflicted couples. This randomized clinical trial compared a novel cognitive-behavioral couple therapy (CBCT) and topical lidocaine for PVD.

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Which Adolescents Can Get Pain Relief from Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy?

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PainRelief.com Interview with:
Caitlin Murray, PhD
Research Fellow
Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development
Seattle Children’s Research Institute

Caitlin Murray, PhD Research Fellow Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development Seattle Children’s Research Institute
Dr. Murray

PainRelief.com:  What is the background for this study?

Response: We know that chronic pain is a significant problem among children and adolescents, and that cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) can be helpful. However, studies show that CBT doesn’t help every child or adolescent affected by chronic pain.

In this study, we explored what factors predicted adolescents’ response to internet-delivered CBT for chronic pain—that is, which factors made it more likely that adolescents would benefit from the CBT intervention. Our primary treatment outcome was pain-related disability, or the extent to which pain interfered with the adolescent’s daily activities.

We found that both adolescent age and parent emotional distress predicted treatment efficacy up to one year after treatment, such that adolescents who were younger and those whose parents expressed less distress were more likely to benefit from this form of cognitive-behavioral therapy.

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