Nguyen, Ruby Hn, Veasley, Christin, Smolenski, Derek · Journal of pain research · 2013 · DOI
This study examined 1,457 women with vulvodynia (chronic vulvar pain) to understand which other pain conditions tend to occur together. Researchers found that women with more severe vulvar pain were much more likely to also have multiple other pain conditions, particularly irritable bowel syndrome and fibromyalgia. The findings suggest that these different pain conditions may share common underlying causes.
This study is relevant to ME/CFS patients because chronic fatigue syndrome was included in the comorbidity assessment, revealing that it clusters with other central sensitization conditions. Understanding how pain conditions co-occur may help identify common pathophysiological mechanisms that could apply across ME/CFS and related syndromes, potentially improving diagnosis and treatment strategies.
This study cannot prove that one condition causes another or that they share a common biological mechanism—it only documents that they tend to occur together. The cross-sectional design prevents establishment of temporal relationships or directionality. Additionally, reliance on self-reported diagnoses may introduce misclassification bias, and the findings apply specifically to women with vulvodynia and may not generalize to other populations.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
The first block is for the primary paper and is the citation you should use in research work. The atlas-snapshot line only applies if you are specifically referring to this atlas’s reading of the paper on the date shown.
Primary citation
Nguyen, Ruby Hn, Veasley, Christin, & Smolenski, Derek (2013). Latent class analysis of comorbidity patterns among women with generalized and localized vulvodynia: preliminary findings.. Journal of pain research. https://doi.org/10.2147/JPR.S42940
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-nguyen-2013-latent-class,
author = {Nguyen, Ruby Hn and Veasley, Christin and Smolenski, Derek},
title = {Latent class analysis of comorbidity patterns among women with generalized and localized vulvodynia: preliminary findings.},
journal = {Journal of pain research},
year = {2013},
doi = {10.2147/JPR.S42940},
note = {PubMed: 23637555},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/nguyen-2013-latent-class},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-30. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/nguyen-2013-latent-class
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