Can psychological approaches to chronic pelvic pain be delivered by a phone app?

Barts Health Gynaecology departments are launching a randomised, feasibility study at the Royal London and Whipps Cross gynaecology departments in May. We will be looking at whether using a smartphone app for psychological self-management can help women with chronic pelvic pain in East London. We want to recruit 90 patients over 6 months and randomise them to an app or to treatment as usual and monitor app use, well-being and collect focus group feedback.

Please discuss with your GP if you are interested and think you may be eligible to take part in the MEMPHIS trial.

blizard.qmul.ac.uk/research...

[StevenM]

Can I please bring up the old chestnut "Why does this only refer to women with chronic pelvic pain"? Men such as myself (incidentally I live a stone's throw from East London) suffer from this condition too, yet we so often seem to be excluded. StevenM

[Alaine1 Administrator in reply to StevenM]

Hi SteveM

The team that are carrying out this research are part of the women's research group at QMUL and the Royal London hospital where they will be recruiting many participants from the gynaecology clinic especially the endometriosis and pelvic pain clinic there. The principal investigator is a consultant gynaecologist and specialist in both endometriosis and pelvic pain.

It may also be that (don't quote me on this!) women have more conditions that can generate pain in the pelvis that men won't suffer from i.e endometriosis, adenomyosis and some conditions simply affect women more often although not exclusively i.e interstitial cystitis which often goes hand in hand with endometriosis and adenomyosis.

Whilst the research is only focusing on women it could potentially inform other studies for males and females down the line. I myself can't join the trial as I have already used the app and was part of the focus group in 2013 as the principal investigator is also my consultant. I would have loved to have joined and help inform this exciting area of research but unfortunately it's just one of those things

Have you looked at clinical trials yourself? You can simply type into google clinical trials. There might be trials specific to your area of pain or to pelvic pain generally that recruit both men and women

I hope this helps

[StevenM in reply to Alaine1]

Thank you for explaining Alaine1. Appreciated.

[Anabelle101]

Hi Alaine - so do I have to live in London for this? And how would I go about seeing if I could be in the trial?

People seem a bit skeptical sometimes when health professionals talk about psychology based interventions, but to be honest I am all for it.