Depression and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Among Women with Vulvodynia: Evidence from the Population-Based Woman to Woman Health Study

Abstract

Background: Psychological disorders may affect the pain experience of women with vulvodynia, but evidence remains limited. The present study aimed to describe the magnitude of the association of depression and posttraumautic stress disorder (PTSD) with the presence of vulvodynia in a nonclinical population from southeastern Michigan. Methods: Baseline data from 1,795 women participating in the Woman to Woman Health Study, a multiethnic population-based study, was used for this analysis. Validated screening questionnaires were conducted to assess vulvodynia, depression, and PTSD. Modified Poisson regression models with a robust variance estimation were used to estimate prevalence ratios (PR) and their 95% confidence intervals (CI) for the association between vulvodynia status and two mental health conditions, depression and PTSD. Results: In the adjusted models, women who screened positive for depression had a 53% higher prevalence of having vulvodynia (PR = 1.53; 95% CI: 1.12, 2.10) compared with women who screened negative for depression. Women who screened positive for PTSD had more than a two-fold increase in the prevalence of having vulvodynia (PR = 2.37; 95% CI: 1.07, 5.25) compared with women who screened negative for PTSD. Conclusions: The increased prevalence of vulvodynia among those screening positive for depression or PTSD suggests that these disorders may contribute to the likelihood of reporting vulvodynia. Alternatively, vulvodynia, depression, and PTSD may have a common pathophysiological and risk profile. Prospective studies are needed to improve our understanding of the temporal relation between mental health conditions and vulvar pain.

Dysaesthetic penoscrotodynia may be a somatoform disorder: results from a two-centre retrospective case series

“…DPSD in men is analogous to vulvodynia in women, and there have been calls to use a similar classification system . Women with vulvodynia experience chronic burning vulval pain and frequently have psychosocial comorbidities . It has already been suggested that vulvodynia may also reflect a somatization disorder, yet dermatologists still seem to persist with largely useless treatments directed against neuropathic pain for this condition too.…”

Health, obstetric outcomes and reproduction in women with vulvar pain or primary fear of childbirth

“…• Many women with LPV report premorbid anxiety, mood disorders (72), PTSD (73) and sexual/physical abuse in childhood (74) why psychological factors may be important.…”

The Relationship of Older Adults' Physical Pain to Depression and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): A Review

“…In baseline data on 250 Veterans Affairs primary care patients, depression and PTSD were independently and significantly related to higher pain reports, as well as to higher rates of disability and lower quality of life [1]. As to relevant studies targeting women in particular, 2015 research showed that depressed women and women who screened positive for PTSD had a higher prevalence of having the pain disorder vulvodynia, which is indicative of the fact that 1) those two disorders can contribute to the probability of experiencing vulvodynia, or 2) as the study's authors pointed out, depression, PTSD, and vulvodynia share patho-physiological as well as risk profiles [106]. Table 1 offers a concise summary of the review provided herein.…”