Wy. Low et al., PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC PELVIC PAIN AND OR INFERTILITY - PSYCHOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES PRETREATMENT AND POSTTREATMENT, Journal of psychosomatic obstetrics and gynaecology, 15(1), 1994, pp. 45-52
This study investigated the psychological differences between gynecolo
gical clinic attenders with either pelvic pain or infertility, or with
both pelvic pain and infertility both before and after laparoscopic i
nvestigation with concurrent treatment. Given the differing meaning at
tached to the procedure by these groups, it was hypothesized that infe
rtility patients would be more anxious but with less evidence of psych
opathology in comparison with the pain group prior to laparoscopic sur
gery. Postsurgery and in the short term, pain reduction was expected t
o be associated with decreased pathology for the pain group. Contrary
to the hypotheses, pain patients obtained higher anxiety scores in com
parison with the infertility group both pretreatment as well as post-t
reatment. The latter group's scores were comparable to normative data.
Other results were generally in line with the hypotheses, pain reduct
ion for both pain groups being associated with a reduction in psychopa
thology. Patients with pain plus infertility resembled pain patients a
t pretreatment, while at post-treatment, they bore a closer resemblanc
e to infertility patients in their psychological profile. This was des
pite the fact that for both pain groups, pain relief was similar. This
reinforces the notion that in the patient groups studied anxiety is a
ssociated with pain rather than with infertility.