This study examines the incidence of sexual and physical abuse and
its relationship to selected pain description and psychological
variables in a sample of 36 chronic pelvic pain patients. Abuse was
measured on a 6-item reliable scale, and abused and non-abused
respondents were compared on 4 categories of variables expected to be
related to the effects of abuse (pain description, functional impact
of pain, other's response to pain, and psychosocial impact of
pain). Results indicated that 19 of 36 patients reported prior
abuse. Physical abuse was reported less commonly than sexual abuse. No
differences between the abused and non-abused groups were noted on
demographic, pain description, or the functional interference
variables. On the psychological variables, however, the abused group
reported less perceived life control, greater punishing responses to
pain, and higher levels of somatization and global distress than the
non-abused group. These results indicate a high incidence of sexual
abuse in patients with chronic pelvic pain and suggest that abused and
non-abused patients differ on psychological but not pain description
or self-reported functional interference variables.