Are Mood and Anxiety Disorders and Alexithymia Associated with Endometriosis? A Preliminary Study

Abstract

Objective. The aim of this preliminary study was to determine whether psychiatric disorders, psychopathological symptoms, and alexithymia are associated with endometriosis in an Italian population. Study Design. A preliminary study comprising 37 Italian patients with surgically confirmed endometriosis and 43 controls, without clinical and ultrasound signs of endometriosis, was carried out. Both patients and controls were evaluated for the presence/absence of psychiatric disorders, psychopathological symptoms, alexithymia, and pain symptoms (nonmenstrual pelvic pain, dysmenorrhea, and dyspareunia). Results. Statistically significant differences were found between cases and controls for prevalence of mood and anxiety disorders, malfunctioning on obsessive-compulsive subscale (P < 0.01) and depression subscale (P < 0.05) of the Symptom Checklist-90-Revisited (SCL-90-R), and higher alexithymia levels (P < 0.01). Patients with endometriosis-associated pain showed greater prevalence of psychiatric disorders compared to pain-free patients but that difference was not significant. Significant correlation was found between malfunctioning in some SCL-90-R dimensions and pelvic pain, dysmenorrhea, and dyspareunia scores at the visual analog score (VAS). Conclusion. Some psychopathological aspects, such as psychoemotional distress and alexithymia, are more frequent in women with endometriosis and might amplify pain symptoms in these patients.

Anxiety and depression in patients with endometriosis: impact and management challenges

“…In addition, endometriotic patients show high levels of alexithymia,31 which further makes it difficult to identify other psychiatric disturbances, due to a severe difficulty in identifying and describing emotions. All the relevant information about the reported studies are summarized in Table 1.…”

Quality of life and sexual satisfaction in women suffering from endometriosis: An Italian preliminary study

“…Both these domains are considered two core aspects of human health (WHO, 2006;Schwartz and Young, 2009;WHO, 2010;Tripoli et al, 2011;Castellanos-Torres et al, 2013;Peloquin et al, 2013). Moreover, some studies stress how endometriosis also affects negatively the perception of health, the ability to work and daily life, and can be associated with mood and anxiety disorders (Denny andMann, 2007a, 2007b;Sepulcri and doAmaral, 2009;Fourquet et al, 2010Fourquet et al, , 2011Nnoaham et al, 2011;Tripoli et al, 2011;Montanari et al, 2013;Cavaggioni et al, 2014;Fritzer et al, 2014).…”

Depressão e Ansiedade em Mulheres com Endometriose: Uma Revisão Crítica da Literatura

“…Vinte e um estudos avaliaram depressão e ansiedade em pacientes com endometriose, sendo que 11 avaliaram simultaneamente depressão e ansiedade (Cavaggioni et al, 2014;Eriksen et al, 2008;Friedl et al, 2015;Klein et al, 2014;Li, Zhang, Zhu, Hu, & Qu, 2014;Melis et al, 2015;Sepulcri & Amaral, 2009;Smorgick, Marsh, As-Sanie, Smith, & Quint, 2013;Souza et al, 2011;Vercelini et al, 2013;Zhao et al, 2012), nove analisaram depressão isoladamente (Carey, Martin, Siedhoff, Bair, As-Sanie, 2014;Figueiredo & Nascimento, 2008;Fourquet et al, 2010;Guzick, Huang, Broadman, Nealon, & Hornstein, 2011;Lorençatto, Petta, Navarro, Bahamondes, & Matos, 2006;Lorençatto, Vieira, Marques, Pinto, & Petta, 2007;Roth, Punch, & Bachman, 2011;Siedentopf, Tariverdian, Rücke, Kentenich, & Arck, 2008;Broeck et al, 2013) e um apenas ansiedade (Garalejic et al, 2010).…”

“…Os resultados evidenciaram diferença estatisticamente significante na distribuição da frequência entre casos e controles para a subescala depressão (2 = 4,035, p = 0,045), mas não para ansiedade (2 = 1,315, p = 0,251). A correlação entre o tipo de endometriose e sintomas psicopatológicos ou escore mé-dio da EVA (Escala Visual Analógica) não mostrou resultados significativos (Cavaggioni et al, 2014).…”