Publications by authors named "Amelia Mardon"
Problematic Periods Costing Young Women-The Impact of Menstrual Symptoms on Work and Study.
Aust N Z J Obstet Gynaecol
December 2024
Menstrual disorders are common, but their economic and social impact is still underreported. This study used a cross-sectional design to investigate menstrual symptom prevalence, impacts and economic burden in Australian women of reproductive age. One thousand two hundred thirty-eight responses were analysed (median age 33 years).
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- Beliefs and knowledge about pelvic pain significantly impact how women manage their pain, but current interventions may not align with their understanding.
- A study conducted interviews with 12 female participants to explore their beliefs regarding the identity, cause, consequences, control, and timeline of their pelvic pain.
- Results showed that while participants generally understood pain through a biopsychosocial lens, they often described their experiences in a way that aligned more with the biomedical model, emphasizing the need for tailored educational approaches in pain management.
Persistent pelvic pain is a significant healthcare concern among adolescents; however adolescents often have poor health literacy regarding their pain. Current school curricula fail to specifically address pelvic pain and management strategies. This review aims to summarise current pelvic pain education programs in Australian and New Zealand schools.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPain science education (PSE) provides people with an understanding of "how pain works" grounded in the biopsychosocial model of pain; it has been demonstrated to improve outcomes in musculoskeletal pain conditions. Preliminary evidence suggests PSE may be effective for female individuals with persistent pelvic pain, but how the content of PSE needs to be modified for this group remains to be determined. A reflexive thematic analysis of qualitative data was performed to identify PSE concepts that female individuals with persistent pelvic pain consider important and why.
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- - Dysmenorrhea is a prevalent gynecological pain that significantly affects women's quality of life, typically treated with NSAIDs and hormonal therapies, but these can have side effects and may not address underlying causes like endometriosis.
- - The review highlights new drugs and targets currently being researched for better management of primary and secondary dysmenorrhea, discussing their clinical development and potential implications.
- - Among the newer treatments, anti-inflammatories show promise, though many are not yet recommended due to limitations in current trials; more research is needed to improve our understanding of menstruation mechanisms and the efficacy of these investigational drugs.
Article Synopsis
- Patient education is very important for helping women who have ongoing pelvic pain, but there are many different ways to teach them, and it's not clear which is the best.
- A review looked at different guidelines from healthcare experts about managing pelvic pain in women and found 17 useful guidelines after checking through over 3,000 records.
- Most of these guidelines said that patient education is needed, focusing on treatment options and understanding the pain, but they suggested different ways to teach, like support groups and printed materials.
Article Synopsis
- - The study explores the experiences of adolescents with persistent pelvic pain (PPP) when trying to access physiotherapy services in a tertiary hospital setting.
- - Key barriers to accessing physiotherapy included limited information, poor health literacy, mental health challenges, long referral processes, and dependence on family for transportation.
- - Positive aspects included supportive clinicians and group therapy environments, but there was concern that reliance on physiotherapy for pain management may lead to dependency.
Over the last decade, the content, delivery and media of pain education have been adjusted in line with scientific discovery in pain and educational sciences, and in line with consumer perspectives. This paper describes a decade-long process of exploring consumer perspectives on pain science education concepts to inform clinician-derived educational updates (undertaken by the authors). Data were collected as part of a quality audit via a series of online surveys in which consent (non-specific) was obtained from consumers for their data to be used in published research.
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- Self-management is important for women with endometriosis, who often rely on various strategies to cope with their symptoms; however, the effectiveness of these strategies is unclear.
- A systematic review was conducted, analyzing studies on self-management strategies like dietary supplements and exercise, but most showed high risk of bias and lack of effectiveness compared to standard treatments.
- The review highlights the need for more rigorous research to properly evaluate and recommend self-management strategies for managing endometriosis symptoms.
Article Synopsis
- - The study investigates the treatment recommendations for persistent pelvic pain (PPP) in females, highlighting inconsistencies despite existing clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) aimed at standardizing care.
- - Researchers evaluated 20 CPGs, identifying a total of 270 recommendations with high quality ratings in certain areas, though there was variability in recommendations for psychological and conservative treatments.
- - Four specific guidelines were recommended for best practices related to conditions like endometriosis and polycystic ovary syndrome, with a notable emphasis on pharmaceutical and surgical interventions.
Article Synopsis
- A systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted on 374 studies examining the effectiveness of cannabinoids and related substances for pain relief in animal models.
- The majority of the studies focused on male rodents and primarily measured pain relief by observing changes in hypersensitivity related to limb withdrawal.
- While cannabinoid treatments were generally effective in reducing pain behaviors in various pain models, the overall quality of the studies was questioned due to low reporting standards for minimizing bias, suggesting future research should improve methodology and behavioral assessment.