Development and validation of a real‐time method characterizing spontaneous pain in women with dysmenorrhea

Abstract

Aim Prior research has primarily focused on static pain assessment, largely ignoring the dynamic nature of pain over time. We used a novel assessment tool for characterizing pain duration, frequency, and amplitude in women with dysmenorrhea and evaluated how these metrics were affected by naproxen treatment. Methods Dysmenorrheic women (n = 25) rated their menstrual pain by squeezing a pressure bulb proportional to the magnitude of their pain. To evaluate whether bulb squeezing was affected by naproxen, we compared parameters before and after naproxen. We also analyzed the correlation between pain relief on a numerical rating scale to changes in bulb squeezing parameters. Random bulb‐squeezing activity in pain‐free participants (n = 14) was used as a control for nonspecific effects or bias. Results In dysmenorrheic women, naproxen reduced the duration of the squeezing during a painful bout, the number of painful bouts and bout intensity. Before naproxen, the correlation between these bulb squeeze parameters and self‐reported pain on numeric rating scale was not significant (R2 = 0.12, p = 0.304); however, there was a significant correlation between changes in bulb squeeze activity and self‐reported pain relief after naproxen (R2 = 0.55, p < 0.001). Conclusion Our study demonstrates a convenient technique for continuous pain assessment, capturing three different dimensions: duration, frequency, and magnitude. Naproxen may act by reducing the duration and frequency of episodic pain in addition to reducing the severity. After further validation, these methods could be used for other pain conditions for deeper phenotyping and assessing novel treatments.

Measurement of changes to the menstrual cycle: A transdisciplinary systematic review evaluating measure quality and utility for clinical trials

“…Two of these were VAS or numeric rating scales (NRS), where pain experienced was rated on a scale from 0 (no pain) to 10 or 100 (worst or unbearable pain). One instrument used a rubber bulb, which participants squeezed and corresponding measurements were recorded in reference to pain experienced [86], in another instrument participants were given a diagram of the body and asked to paint the areas affected by pain during their current menstrual period [87], and the final instrument included a single, retrospective question asking respondents to classify their frequency of menstrual discomfort as "always," "often," "sometimes," or "never" [88].…”

Scientific Knowledge Graph of Dysmenorrhea: A Bibliometric Analysis from 2001 to 2021

“…The group of Hsieh JC mainly focused on the neuroimaging studies of dysmenorrhea, especially on structural alterations in the brain, BDNF Val66Met Polymorphism, and functional connectivity of pain modulatory systems; 1,[17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29] the group of Hellman KM mainly focused on the research of bladder pain sensitivity and spontaneous pain in dysmenorrhea women. [30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43] Dawood MY is the most dominant author and the most frequently cited author, which is a medical doctor of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, West Virginia University School of Medicine, writing a great number of reviews on dysmenorrhea, mainly about the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs like Ibuprofen. 5,[44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57] The team notes that once primary dysmenorrhea is diagnosed, the most effective treatments are NSAID and oral contraceptives.…”