Diagnosis and treatment of nonorganic pelvic pain

Pelvic pain was a prominent complaint among one third of 3,000 gynecology clinic patients. In 1.1% no causative disease could be found, and these patients failed to respond to routine therapy. Twenty of these patients who were studied minutely revealed some psychologic disorder including hysteria, passive-aggressive behavior, sociopathy, depression, and alcoholism. A strong tendency toward psychophysiologic disturbances in other systems was practically universal. Supportive psychotherapy, progressive relaxation training, and insight therapy were used. The greatest barrier to treatment success was refusal of patients to accept the psychologic factors in their total illness.