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- Chisari, Claudia, et al.
(författare)
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A Network Analysis of Selected Psychosocial Factors in Vulvodynia and Its Subtypes
- 2021
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Ingår i: Pain medicine. - : Oxford University Press. - 1526-2375 .- 1526-4637. ; 22:12, s. 2863-2875
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Objective Psychosocial factors are related to pain and sex-related outcomes in provoked vulvodynia and possibly in mixed and spontaneous vulvodynia. However, a broader behavioral framework, such as the psychological flexibility model, has received limited attention in this context. Recently, additional psychosocial variables have also emerged that appear relevant to vulvodynia, including perceived injustice, body-exposure anxiety during intercourse, and unmitigated sexual communion. The present study applied network analysis to explore relations between psychological flexibility, newly emerging psychosocial variables relevant to vulvodynia, and their associations with vulvodynia outcomes. The study also explored potential differences across vulvodynia subtypes.Design An online cross-sectional study of 349 participants with vulvodynia (112 provoked, 237 spontaneous/mixed) was carried out.Methods Participants completed self-report questionnaires, including questions on pain and sexual outcomes, depression, facets of psychological flexibility, body-exposure anxiety during intercourse, unmitigated sexual communion, and perceived injustice. Networks were computed for the total sample and for provoked and mixed/spontaneous vulvodynia subsamples.Results Perceived injustice, pain acceptance, and depression were “central” factors among the included variables, in all models. Psychological flexibility processes were relevant for all networks. Depression was more central in the network for mixed/spontaneous vulvodynia; body-exposure anxiety during intercourse was most central for the provoked subtype.Conclusions Among the included variables, perceived injustice, pain acceptance, depression, and psychological flexibility appear to be important in vulvodynia. As different factors are significant across subtypes, tailored treatment approaches are suggested.
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| 2. |
- Chisari, Claudia, et al.
(författare)
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Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for women living with Vulvodynia : A single-case experimental design study of a treatment delivered online
- 2022
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Ingår i: Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science. - : Elsevier. - 2212-1447. ; 23, s. 15-30
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Introduction: Vulvodynia is a condition characterised by persistent vulval pain and includes particular impacts on sexual and emotional functioning. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) has been successfully applied in persistent pain but has not been tested in this population. This single-case experimental design (SCED) study aimed to evaluate whether an online ACT programme improves clinical outcomes in women with Vulvodynia. We also evaluated whether the intervention led to changes in hypothesised processes of therapeutic change.Methods: This study applied a nonconcurrent multiple baseline SCED method to assess ACT in women with Vulvodynia. During baseline and treatment phases, participants completed daily self-report outcomes of pain severity and interference, sexual functioning and satisfaction, depression, and hypothesised process-variables: pain-acceptance, present-moment-awareness, committed-action, perceived injustice, and body-exposure anxiety during sexual activities. Full-length assessments of these variables were also completed before and after treatment. The intervention comprised a six-week online ACT programme, combined with a Vulvodynia-specific manual. Visual and statistical analyses were conducted.Results: Seven participants, mostly with mixed Vulvodynia, provided baseline and treatment phase data, and completed the intervention and diaries. Based on the visual inspection, and Tau and Tau-U values as effect sizes from the daily data, all participants showed moderate size improvements in two or more outcomes. However, participants had highly individual treatment effects. Limited improvement was found in depression. Pain acceptance, committed-action, and perceived injustice also demonstrated change for some participants.Discussion: The results suggest online ACT may improve pain and sexual outcomes for some women with Vulvodynia. Pain-acceptance, committed-action, and perceived injustice are highlighted as potential processes of change for some participants. In general, responses to treatment appear highly individual. Further application of the SCED approach to ACT for Vulvodynia is recommended.
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| 3. |
- Chisari, Claudia, et al.
(författare)
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Psychosocial factors associated with pain and sexual function in women with Vulvodynia : A systematic review.
- 2021
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Ingår i: European Journal of Pain. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 1090-3801 .- 1532-2149. ; 25:1, s. 39-50
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- 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, self-efficacy beliefs and penetration cognitions, in relation to pain and sexual functioning.
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| 4. |
- Chisari, Claudia, et al.
(författare)
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The role of psychological flexibility, perceived injustice and body image in Vulvodynia : A longitudinal study
- 2022
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Ingår i: European Journal of Pain. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 1090-3801 .- 1532-2149. ; 26:1, s. 103-113
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background Women with Vulvodynia experience pain, related impacts on sex and daily functioning, and depression. While psychosocial factors are associated with outcomes in Vulvodynia, longitudinal data are limited, especially in mixed/spontaneous Vulvodynia. Broad psychological models such as psychological flexibility (PF) and content-specific factors, such as body-exposure anxiety (BEA) and avoidance during sexual activities and perceived injustice, have not been adequately investigated in Vulvodynia. The aim of this study was to explore whether these factors assessed at baseline predict pain severity, pain interference, sexual functioning and satisfaction and depression 3 months later.Methods A longitudinal study of 349 women with Vulvodynia was conducted. Participants completed online self-report measures of pain-related and sexual outcomes, depression, BEA, perceived injustice and facets of PF (present moment awareness, pain acceptance, committed action) at baseline and after 3 months, overlapping with the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.Results Seventy percent of women responded at both assessments (n = 244). There were significant decreases in pain severity, pain interference, present moment awareness, committed action and a significant increase in depression at 3 months. All the baseline psychosocial factors significantly correlated with at least one outcome at 3 months. When adjusting for baseline outcome and demographics, committed action significantly positively predicted depression at 3 months and pain acceptance significantly positively predicted pain interference at 3 months.Conclusions Among women with Vulvodynia, pain acceptance and committed action are prospectively associated with pain interference and depression. The reliability and generalizability of these results needs to be established given the overlap with the COVID-19 pandemic. Future studies should investigate whether targeting these factors enhances outcomes in Vulvodynia.Significance This longitudinal study explored the role of PF, perceived injustice and body image during sexual activities in predicting pain severity, pain interference, sexual functioning, sexual satisfaction and depression in women with Vulvodynia. The study findings reveal that two facets of PF (committed action and pain acceptance) predicted pain interference and depression over time. It may be important to incorporate these processes in treatments developed for Vulvodynia.
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| 5. |
- Klionsky, Daniel J., et al.
(författare)
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Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy
- 2012
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Ingår i: Autophagy. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1554-8635 .- 1554-8627. ; 8:4, s. 445-544
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- In 2008 we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, research on this topic has continued to accelerate, and many new scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Accordingly, it is important to update these guidelines for monitoring autophagy in different organisms. Various reviews have described the range of assays that have been used for this purpose. Nevertheless, there continues to be confusion regarding acceptable methods to measure autophagy, especially in multicellular eukaryotes. A key point that needs to be emphasized is that there is a difference between measurements that monitor the numbers or volume of autophagic elements (e.g., autophagosomes or autolysosomes) at any stage of the autophagic process vs. those that measure flux through the autophagy pathway (i.e., the complete process); thus, a block in macroautophagy that results in autophagosome accumulation needs to be differentiated from stimuli that result in increased autophagic activity, defined as increased autophagy induction coupled with increased delivery to, and degradation within, lysosomes (in most higher eukaryotes and some protists such as Dictyostelium) or the vacuole (in plants and fungi). In other words, it is especially important that investigators new to the field understand that the appearance of more autophagosomes does not necessarily equate with more autophagy. In fact, in many cases, autophagosomes accumulate because of a block in trafficking to lysosomes without a concomitant change in autophagosome biogenesis, whereas an increase in autolysosomes may reflect a reduction in degradative activity. Here, we present a set of guidelines for the selection and interpretation of methods for use by investigators who aim to examine macroautophagy and related processes, as well as for reviewers who need to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of papers that are focused on these processes. These guidelines are not meant to be a formulaic set of rules, because the appropriate assays depend in part on the question being asked and the system being used. In addition, we emphasize that no individual assay is guaranteed to be the most appropriate one in every situation, and we strongly recommend the use of multiple assays to monitor autophagy. In these guidelines, we consider these various methods of assessing autophagy and what information can, or cannot, be obtained from them. Finally, by discussing the merits and limits of particular autophagy assays, we hope to encourage technical innovation in the field.
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