Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Affect And Marital Adjustment In Women’S Rating Of Dyspareunic Pain, Marta Meana, Irv Binik, Sainir Khalife, Deborah Cohen

Psychology Faculty Research

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the extent to which depressive symptomatology, anxiety, and marital adjustment mediate pain ratings in women suffering from dyspareunia.

METHOD: Seventy-six women with dyspareunia were administered the depression and anxiety scales of Derogatis's Brief Symptom Inventory and the McGill Pain Questionnaire. They also underwent a manual-visual gynecological examination, an ultrasound, and a colposcopy in an attempt to identify potential evidence and type of organicity.

RESULTS: Depressive symptomatology, anxiety, and marital adjustment together accounted for a significant amount of the variance in pain ratings, although only anxiety and marital adjustment were independent predictors of pain ratings in the entire …