Female Patients With High Tone Pelvic Floor Dysfunction
Conditions
Keywords
high tone pelvic floor dysfunction, levator pain, dyspareunia
Brief summary
The purpose of this study is to determine whether vaginal diazepam suppositories are an effective treatment of high tone pelvic floor dysfunction.
Detailed description
High tone pelvic floor dysfunction is a common cause of pelvic pain in females. It is thought to be initiated by a sentinel event such as trauma, surgery, or vaginal delivery1. Currently, treatment options include warm baths, stretching, physical therapy with myofascial therapy or biofeedback, or pharmacologic therapy with oral amitriptyline or tiazadine2. Physical therapy can be effective. However, it usually involves frequent visits to a specialized physical therapist to undergo intravaginal treatments consisting of myofascial release, massage, or biofeedback. We would like to find a treatment option for patients that would be effective without the invasive and time consuming nature of physical therapy. It is known that diazepam is a valid treatment option for disorders involving spasticity including spastic cerebral palsy5 and tetanus. A literature search on diazepam and high tone pelvic floor dysfunction revealed one paper. This study has an intrinsic flaw as it is a retrospective chart review, and the results are confounded by concurrent physical therapy. They were, however, able to find that patients treated with diazepam suppositories showed a significant improvement in pelvic floor tone. They also assessed pain and sexual function, but these did not reach statistical significance.
Interventions
DRUGVaginal Diazepam Suppository
10mg compounded vaginal suppository
Patients will be asked to use one vaginal suppository every night for 28 days
Sponsors
TriHealth Inc.
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
TRIPLE (Subject, Investigator, Outcomes Assessor)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
FEMALE
Age
18 Years to 65 Years
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
* candidates from the Division of Urogynecology at Good Samaritan Hospital in Cincinnati, OH * aged 18-65 * high tone pelvic floor dysfunction
Exclusion criteria
* allergy to diazepam or any drug in the class of benzodiazepines * current pelvic floor physical therapy * pelvic surgery within the last 3 months * current pregnancy, planning on pregnancy during the study period, or not sure if pregnant * regular benzodiazepine, muscle relaxant, or daily alcohol use * history of alcohol or drug abuse * contraindications to diazepam: hepatic or renal dysfunction, myasthenia gravis, acute narrow angle glaucoma, severe respiratory insufficiency, sleep apnea
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Surface EMG | After 28 days of treatment | A baseline sEMG will be compared to sEMG after 28 days of treatment. |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| FSFI | 28 days | Baseline FSFI scores will be compared to scores after 4 weeks of treatment to asses sexual function |
| VAS | 28 days | Visual analog scale for pain will be collected at baseline and compared to VAS after 28 days of treatment |
| Surface EMG Midpoint | 14 days after treatment | A baseline sEMG will be compared to sEMG after 14 days of treatment. |
| PGI-I | 28 days | Patient Global Impression of Improvement will be asked after 28 days of treatment to determine if the patient felt the treatment was helpful |
| PGI-S | 28 days | Patient Global Impression of Severity will be collected and compared to determine how severe teh patient perceived their condition to be before and after treatment |
| SF-12 | 28 days | baseline SF-12 scores will be compared to SF-12 scores after 28 days of treatment to asses quality of life in the two domains of mental and physical well-being. |
Countries
United States
Outcome results
None listed