Does Self-compassion Benefit Couples Coping With Vulvodynia? Associations With Psychological, Sexual, and Relationship Adjustment

Santerre-Baillargeon, Marie; Rosen, Natalie O.; Steben, Marc; Pâquet, Myriam; Perez, Rocio Macabena; Bergeron, Sophie

doi:10.1097/ajp.0000000000000579

Cited by 37 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…While there are several studies of psychosocial factors in Vulvodynia (Chisari & Chilcot, 2017; Santerre‐Baillargeon et al., 2018), and its impactful nature is significantly associated with psychological, emotional and sexual difficulties (Bois et al., 2016; Gates & Galask, 2001; Khandker et al., 2011), there is no coherent understanding of how psychosocial factors impact on outcomes or interact with relevant disease variables.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Psychosocial factors associated with pain and sexual function in women with Vulvodynia: A systematic review

Chisari

Monajemi

Scott

et al. 2020

European Journal of Pain

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Background and objective: Vulvodynia is a prevalent chronic vulval pain condition affecting 10%-28% of women, and significantly impacting their health and quality of life. It is currently poorly understood and biomedical treatments achieve only modest benefits for pain and sexual functioning. A wider psychosocial conceptualization of this condition may improve outcomes. There is currently no coherent understanding of how psychosocial factors may contribute to outcomes in Vulvodynia. The aim of this review is to identify and systematically review psychosocial factors associated with pain and sexual outcomes and to inform a psychosocial model of Vulvodynia. Databases and data treatment: Observational/experimental studies reporting on the association between psychosocial factors and pain/sexual outcomes in adult women with Vulvodynia were eligible. Two reviewers independently conducted eligibility screening, data extraction and quality assessment. Twenty-one studies were included, all focused on women with Provoked Vestibulodynia (PVD). Most of the studies were low-to-medium quality. Results/Conclusion: A range of general/pain-related distress and avoidance processes, and sex/intimacy avoidance or engagement processes were significantly associated with pain, sexual functioning or sexual distress and sexual satisfaction, supporting the role of a psychosocial approach to PVD. Depression, anxiety, catastrophizing, pain-anxiety, pain acceptance, body-exposure anxiety, attention to sexual cues, partner hostility and solicitousness, self-efficacy and penetration cognitions are highlighted as potentially important treatment targets in PVD. Due to the limited data available, developing a psychosocial model was not possible. Directions for future research include examining the replicability and generalizability of the factors identified, exploring differences/similarities across Vulvodynia subsets and testing tailored theoretically based treatments. Significance: The systematic review highlights the role of psychosocial factors associated with pain and sexual functioning in Vulvodynia. The review findings reveal that Vulvodynia presents both similar and unique cognitive, behavioural and interpersonal features compared to other chronic pain conditions. There may be important roles for negative sexual cues, body image-related factors during intercourse, partner factors, selfefficacy beliefs and penetration cognitions, in relation to pain and sexual functioning. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creat ive Commo ns Attri butio n-NonCo mmercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Psychosocial factors associated with pain and sexual function in women with Vulvodynia: A systematic review

Chisari

Monajemi

Scott

et al. 2020

European Journal of Pain

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“…Eight articles were further excluded, for reasons shown in the Appendix section ( Figure 1). Finally, 19 articles (n=2,713 patients, of which 73.3% were females) met our eligibility criteria and were included in this systematic review [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33]. The baseline characteristics of the included studies are comprehensively described in Table 1.…”

Section: Study Selection and Characteristicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…All included studies evaluated the correlation of self-compassion with other important psychosocial outcomes such as depression, anxiety, stress, resilience, shame, quality of life, and other outcomes as shown in Table 2. Nine studies evaluated the correlation between self-compassion and depression [16,18,[20][21][22][23]26,29,33]. All studies found that a higher self-compassion was correlated with lower levels of depression in individuals with a medical illness.…”

Section: Important Correlationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Effect of Self-Compassion on Psychosocial and Clinical Outcomes in Patients With Medical Conditions: A Systematic Review

Misurya

Dutta

2020

Cureus

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Studies about the role of self-compassion have focused primarily on psychological well-being, but there is solid evidence to suggest that self-compassion may have larger and more prominent implications in the medical world. Therefore, this systemic review aimed to investigate the effects of self-compassion on psychosocial and clinical outcomes in medically ill patients. A comprehensive search of several databases from their inception to August 10, 2020, was conducted, which included Ovid MEDLINE(R) and Epub Ahead of Print, Ovid Embase, Ovid Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, and Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL). Eligible studies needed to include psychosocial or clinical outcomes of self-compassion in medically ill patients. Nineteen articles (n=2,713 patients; 73.3% females) met our eligibility criteria and were included in this systematic review. There was a negative correlation between self-compassion and psychosocial outcomes such as anxiety, depression, and stress. Moreover, based on self-compassion intervention, there was an improvement in clinical outcomes related to diabetes such as hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) and blood glucose levels. This systematic review highlights the effect of self-compassion on psychosocial and clinical outcomes. Further studies are needed to evaluate long-term outcomes of a self-compassion-based-intervention to highlight its importance in the role of disease management.

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“…In cancer patients, self‐compassion was shown to promote adaptive rather than maladaptive coping, 26 and was significantly associated with lower stress and better quality of life 27 . Santerre‐Baillargeon, Rosen 28 found increased self‐compassion to be associated with a significant decrease in sexual distress for the male partners of women with vulvodynia (a condition of sexual pain) yet did not have a significant effect for the women experiencing the pain.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sexual satisfaction and sexual distress after cancer: The role of body image disruption, self‐compassion, sexual pain and relationship satisfaction

2021

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Objective To identify variables that correlate with sexual satisfaction and sexual distress among adult cancer survivors, and how these differ, providing a basis from which approaches to intervention may be identified. This study examined four key variables: body image disruption, self‐compassion, relationship satisfaction and sexual pain, previously all linked to sexual quality of life. Methods A cross‐sectional survey was conducted online, with participants (n = 113) recruited via cancer charities, support groups and sexual counsellors' networks. A multivariate multiple regression analysis was conducted to analyse relationships among variables. Results In a regression adjusted for age, sex and time since diagnosis, higher sexual distress was significantly associated with higher body image disruption (β = 0.23; p = 0.024), lower self‐compassion (β = −0.29; p = 0.009) and higher sexual pain (β = 0.39; p < 0.001); but not relationship satisfaction (β = −0.08; p = 0.434). Higher sexual satisfaction was significantly associated with higher relationship satisfaction (β = 0.35; p = 0.002) and lower sexual pain (β = −0.29; p = 0.005), but not body image disruption (β = −0.19; p = 0.089), or self‐compassion (β = 0.06; p = 0.614). Sexual pain had a significantly stronger association with sexual distress than sexual satisfaction; F (1, 84) = 18.29, p < 0.001. Conclusions Sexual distress and sexual satisfaction are associated with different psycho‐social correlates even though both are used as indicators of sexual health. Research should seek to further understand the differences in these two critical markers of sexual health, with these differences likely to highlight the need to match interventions to the nature of the sexual difficulties experienced following cancer treatment.

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Does Self-compassion Benefit Couples Coping With Vulvodynia? Associations With Psychological, Sexual, and Relationship Adjustment

Cited by 37 publications

References 54 publications

Psychosocial factors associated with pain and sexual function in women with Vulvodynia: A systematic review

Psychosocial factors associated with pain and sexual function in women with Vulvodynia: A systematic review

The Effect of Self-Compassion on Psychosocial and Clinical Outcomes in Patients With Medical Conditions: A Systematic Review

Sexual satisfaction and sexual distress after cancer: The role of body image disruption, self‐compassion, sexual pain and relationship satisfaction

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