Background & Aims
Menstrual pain is a condition that occurs cyclically in the female body as long as her reproductive ability continues and causes many pain-related symptoms to occur (1). Additionally, women typically have cognitive, emotional, and psychomotor symptoms, which typically manifest during the same time of the menstrual cycle. Cognitive flexibility, which can contribute to appropriate emotional regulation, is the capacity of humans to modify their cognitive processing techniques in response to novel and unexpected environmental circumstances (2). Although there is evidence that menstrual symptoms affect cognitive functions, the relationship between cognitive flexibility, which is related to emotional state, somatization, and pain, and affects daily life, and menstrual symptoms is unknown.
Objectives: This study aims to investigate the relationship between menstrual pain-related symptoms and cognitive flexibility.
Methods
The study comprised 66 young nulliparous women over the age of 18, who had regular menstrual cycles, experienced menstrual pain lasting more than six months, and did not have any other chronic pain. Menstrual Symptom Questionnaire (MSQ), which has three subscales: “negative effects/somatic complaints”, “menstrual pain symptoms” and “coping methods”, was used to evaluate menstrual symptoms. Stroop Test was used to evaluate cognitive flexibility. Stroop test is a widely used test to evaluate executive functions of the frontal region such as selective attention, information processing speed, cognitive flexibility and ability to resist disruptive influence. It is one of the tests considered the gold standard in measuring a person’s attention (3). Pearson and Spearman correlation analyzes were used in the statistical analysis of the study.
Results
A weak positive statistically significant relationship was found between the MSQ-negative effects/somatic complaints subscale and Stroop 3 time (r=0.317, p=0.010). A weak positive statistically significant relationship was found between the MSQ-menstrual pain symptoms subscale and Stroop 3 time (r=0.304, p=0.014). A weak, positive, statistically significant relationship was found between the MSQ-Total score and Stroop 3 time (r=0,339, p=0,006).
Conclusions
This study found that the Stroop Test, which measures cognitive flexibility, took longer to complete when a woman experienced more menstrual symptoms, such as discomfort, negative consequences, and somatic complaints. The widespread lowering of the pain threshold, expanded nociceptive reflex receptive fields, disrupted visual perception of pain-relevant biological motion, poor emotional decision-making, and hypervigilance-related perceptual amplification are all linked to chronic pain (5). Therefore, it is thought to be important to evaluate cognitive flexibility in individuals who commonly experience menstrual pain-related symptoms. However, more women’s health research is needed to explain this relationship.
References
1.Farage, M. A., Neill, S., & MacLean, A. B. (2009). Physiological changes associated with the menstrual cycle: a review. Obstetrical & gynecological survey, 64(1), 58-72.
2.Ghosh, S., & Halder, S. (2020). Emotional Regulation and Cognitive Flexibility in Young Adults. Journal of Psychosocial Research, 15(2).
3.Scarpina, F., & Tagini, S. (2017). The stroop color and word test. Frontiers in psychology, 8, 557.
4.Hollins, M., Bryen, C. P., & Taylor, D. (2020). Effects of chronic pain history on perceptual and cognitive inhibition. Experimental Brain Research, 238, 321-332.
Presenting Author
Özgü ?nal
Poster Authors
Özgü ?NAL
Assoc. Prof.
Health Sciences University, Turkey
Lead Author
Topics
- Specific Pain Conditions/Pain in Specific Populations: Abdominal and Pelvic Pain