Understanding pain in persons with endometriosis, evaluating the role of the hypothalamus and brainstem
OA Version
Citation
Abstract
Endometriosis is a chronic gynecological disorder associated with severe pain and impacts the quality of life for over 190 million girls and women of reproductive age (Zondervan et al., 2020). Prolonged pain exposure is associated with altered central processing of pain signals which is believed to largely implicate brain stem structures. To date, limitations in terms of technologies have prevented accurate segmentation of brain stem structures to evaluate clinical conditions. In the proposed investigation, we use a novel method of brain stem and hypothalamic segmentation to understand the impact of endometriosis and the relevancy of findings toward pain behaviors. This cross-sectional study applied structural neuroimaging and pain measures scales to understand endometriosis associated in a cohort with surgically confirmed endometriosis (n=43) and a cohort of healthy controls (n=25). Participants with endometriosis had significantly higher anxiety, depression, pain interference, and pain catastrophizing than healthy controls. Group differences were observed in several brain stem structures wherein the endometriosis cohort showed higher levels of brain stem volumes than healthy controls. Correlation analysis highlighted brain-behavioral relationships including the pain catastrophizing scale. Together, findings from this investigation provide insight into the centralized impact of endometriosis and highlight relevant targets for immunological and neurological treatment options.
Description
2024
License
Attribution 4.0 International