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Behavioural and neural responses to aversive visceral stimuli in women with primary dysmenorrhoea
Author(s) -
Böttcher Bettina,
Gizewski Elke R.,
Siedentopf Christian,
Steiger Ruth,
Verius Michael,
Riedl David,
Ischebeck Anja,
Schmid Julia,
Wildt Ludwig,
Elsenbruch Sigrid
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
european journal of pain
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.305
H-Index - 109
eISSN - 1532-2149
pISSN - 1090-3801
DOI - 10.1002/ejp.1302
Subject(s) - medicine , chronic pain , visceral pain , psychosocial , functional magnetic resonance imaging , threshold of pain , noxious stimulus , visual analogue scale , perception , physical therapy , nociception , psychology , anesthesia , neuroscience , psychiatry , receptor , radiology
Background Chronic pelvic pain, in particular dysmenorrhoea, is a significant yet unresolved healthcare problem in gynaecology. As interoceptive sensitivity and underlying neural mechanisms remain incompletely understood, this functional magnetic resonance imaging ( fMRI ) study assessed behavioural and neural responses to visceral stimuli in primary dysmenorrhoea ( PMD ). Methods Women with PMD ( N = 19) without psychological comorbidity and healthy women ( N = 20) were compared with respect to visceral sensory and pain thresholds, and to neural responses to individually calibrated mildly painful and painful rectal distensions implemented during scanning. Trial‐by‐trial ratings of perceived intensity were accomplished with visual analogue scales ( VAS ). Results Although women with dysmenorrhoea reported significantly higher chronic pain intensity and pain interference with daily life activities ( p < 0.01, assessed with the West Haven‐Yale Multidimensional Pain Inventory), there were no differences between groups in visceral sensitivity and mean trial‐by‐trial VAS ratings were virtually identical. Analysis of neural responses revealed activation in brain regions previously shown to be involved in the processing of visceral stimuli with differences between painful and mildly painful stimulation, but no group differences were found even when using a liberal statistical threshold. Conclusions Dysmenorrhoea patients show unaltered perceptual and neural responses to experimental interoceptive stimuli. Despite limited sample size, these negative results argue against a generalized sensitization towards interoceptive stimuli in patients without psychological comorbidities. Future studies should clarify the role of psychosocial factors in central sensitization using more pain region‐specific models in larger and clinically more heterogeneous samples. Significance Despite higher chronic pain and pain interference with daily life activities, women with primary dysmenorrhoea do not differ from healthy women with respect to visceral sensitivity or neural processing of aversive interoceptive stimuli induced by rectal distensions. Generalized sensitization may be present only in subgroups with pronounced psychosocial or psychiatric disturbances.