Psychological treatments of dysmenorrhea: Differential effectiveness for spasmodics and congestives

Nancy Amodei, Rosemery O. Nelson, Robin B. Jarrett, Sandra Sigmon

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

14 Scopus citations

Abstract

Two studies are reported, examining the effectiveness of psychological treatments for dysmenorrhea. In Experiment 1, 33 women with spasmodic dysmenorrhea were treated with relaxation alone, or relaxation plus imagery, or assigned to a waiting-list control condition; and 29 women with congestive dysmenorrhea were treated with relaxation alone, or assigned to a waiting-list control condition. In Experiment 2, 18 additional congestives were treated with a coping skills package, or this package plus relaxation; these two groups were compared with the two congestive groups from Experiment 1. The dependent measures were reports of symptom severity, general discomfort, resting time, and medication use. Consistent with the literature, the main findings of the present studies are: (a) relaxation training (alone or with imagery) effectively reduces resting time for spasmodics; and (b) none of the treatments was shown to be effective for congestive sufferers.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)95-103
Number of pages9
JournalJournal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry
Volume18
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 1987

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
  • Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
  • Clinical Psychology
  • Psychiatry and Mental health

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