The aim of this study was to compare the effects of biomedical pain education and pain
neuroscience education, in addition to routine exercise training, on menstrual pain
parameters (pain severity and duration, analgesic use), menstrual stress, somatosensory
function, pain catastrophizing, pain beliefs, anxiety/depressive symptom level and
quality of life in healthy individuals with primary dysmenorrhea. The design of the study
is parallel group, randomized study. The study sample consists of healthy individuals
aged 18 years and older with primary dysmenorrhea symptoms.
Individuals will be randomly assigned to one of the two research arms. In addition to the
exercise training, which includes stretching and relaxation exercises routinely used in
the field of physiotherapy and rehabilitation in primary dysmenorrhea, the patients in
the first research arm will be given pain neuroscience education once a week for 2 weeks.
In the second research arm, in addition to the exercise training that includes stretching
and relaxation exercises routinely applied in the field of physiotherapy and
rehabilitation in primary dysmenorrhea, biomedical pain education will be given once a
week for 2 weeks.
Participants will be evaluated in terms of descriptive measurements and outcome measures
3 times in total, before the applications, immediately after the end of the application
period, and 3 months after the end of the applications. The primary outcome measurement
parameter of the study was determined as the Visual Analog Scale (VAS) score, which is
used to determine the severity of menstrual pain. Secondary outcome measures are
menstrual stress level to be evaluated with the Menstrual Distress Questionnaire,
somatosensory function status to be evaluated with the Central Sensitization Inventory,
pain catastrophizing state to be evaluated with the Menstrual Pain Specific Pain
Catastrophizing Scale, pain beliefs status to be assessed with the Pain Beliefs
Questionnaire, anxiety/depressive symptom level to be evaluated with Depression Anxiety
Stress Scales-21 (DASS-21), quality of life to be evaluated with World Health
Organization Quality of Life Scale-Short Form and perception of change to be evaluated by
5-point likert scale.
Sample size calculation was performed with G*Power version 3.1 based on previous study
results. In the one-way hypothesis design, it was determined that a total of 32
individuals, 16 individuals in each group, should be included in the study in order to
reach 80% power with the calculated effect size difference Cohen's d=0.9 and α=0.05 type
1 error. Considering that there might be a 20% loss of individuals during the study, it
was decided to include a total of 38 individuals in the study.
In the literature, there is no study comparing the effects of pain neuroscience education
and biomedical pain education in primary dysmenorrhea, which is a problem that affects
women's lives significantly. It is important to reveal the effects of different pain
trainings for effective pain management in primary dysmenorrhea.
