[Pelvic pain syndrome in women--a psychiatric-gynaecological study (author's transl)].

77 selected patients suffering from dyspareunia and pelvic pain on moving, with normal findings on gynaecological palpation were submitted to laparoscopy or laparotomy, as well as to a psychiatric investigation. In 25% of the cases no pathological changes were seen--group I; in a further 40% signs of slight--group II--and in the remaining 35% of cases signs of serious pelvic congestion were present--group III. Serious pelvic congestion occurred most frequently between 26 and 35 years of age and seemed to be connected with more than one delivery. Furthermore, in the total material, 65% of patients showed psychologically inadequate personalities whereby nearly 90% of the women in group I, but only a little over 40% in group III, displayed psychological inadequacy, with the women in group II occupying an intermediate position. On the basis of this observation and other investigated personality variables, pelvic pain without pathological findings seems to be caused by neuromuscular spasm in psychologically vulnerable persons. Pelvic pain with different degrees of pelvic congestion cannot be entirely dissociated from the possibility of psychological overlay, which may, however, be of a secondary nature.