1. Objectifs

Intentions :
«The current study examined whether distal developmental factors—attachment and CM [childhood maltreatment]—differentially predicted the effect of treatment for PVD [provoked vestibulodynia] on women’s sexual adjustment (sexual satisfaction, sexual distress, and sexual function) at post-treatment and 6-month follow-up in a RCT [randomized clinical trial] comparing CBCT [cognitive-behavioral couple therapy] to topical lidocaine.» (p. 481)

Questions/Hypothèses :
The authors «hypothesized that women with greater attachment avoidance or attachment anxiety and/or with a greater history of CM would experience poorer treatment outcomes, and that this effect would be greater in the CBCT condition relative to the lidocaine condition.» (p. 481)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
«Participants were 108 women diagnosed with PVD currently involved in a romantic relationship.» (p. 482) «Women with a confirmed PVD diagnosis and their partners were then randomized […] to 1 of 2 treatment conditions, either a CBCT or nightly application of topical lidocaine.» (p. 482)

Instruments :
Questionnaires

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse statistique

3. Résumé

The results show that «attachment avoidance acted as a significant treatment moderator of treatment outcome, where women with higher levels of attachment avoidance experienced poorer outcomes for sexual satisfaction at 6-month follow-up, sexual distress at post-treatment, and sexual function at both post-treatment and 6-month follow-up in the CBCT condition compared to the lidocaine condition. These results suggest that women with a greater fear of intimacy who tend to be more self-reliant and distrusting of others have greater difficulty benefitting from couples’ psychotherapy for PVD than those who are more comfortable with emotional closeness.» (p. 488-489) Also, « CM acted as a significant moderator of treatment outcomes, whereby individuals in the CBCT condition with higher levels of CM experienced poorer treatment outcomes for sexual satisfaction at 6-month follow-up and sexual function at both post-treatment and 6-month follow up compared to the lidocaine condition. These results suggest that women with PVD who have experienced abuse or neglect as children may have more difficulty benefiting from short-term, sexuality-focused couple therapy than from other forms of medical treatment, such as topical lidocaine.» (p. 491)