The Effectiveness of Transcranial Direct Stimulation and Schema Therapy on Anxiety, Pain, Cognitive Flexibility, and Selective Attention in Women with Vaginismus

Today, treating women's sexual diseases is considered one of the essential issues of strengthening the family system and, by its very nature, the strengthening of the social system. Achieving this requires performing physical and psychological treatments. The present study aimed to determine the effectiveness of transcranial direct stimulation and schema therapy on anxiety, pain, cognitive flexibility, and selective attention in women with vaginismus.

The current research was quasi-experimental with a pretest-posttest design with a control group. The statistical population was female patients with vaginismus in Tehran in 2021. 30 people were selected by purposeful sampling and randomly divided into two experimental and control groups. The data collection tools were Kettle's Anxiety Questionnaire (1973), Short-form McGill Pain Questionnaire (SF-MPQ-2) (2009), and Semantic Stroop Test (1935). The experimental group underwent transcranial stimulation intervention (10 sessions of 20 minutes) and schema therapy intervention (10 sessions of 90 minutes). The control group did not receive any interventions. The data were analyzed by multivariate analysis of the covariance test.

The results showed that anxiety, pain, and selective attention have decreased due to direct transcranial stimulation and schema therapy interventions (p<0.05). Also, due to transcranial direct stimulation and schema therapy interventions, cognitive flexibility has increased (p<0.05).

It seems that the present study's findings provide an empirical support for these two treatment methods in the treatment of vaginismus disorder. The awareness of health psychotherapists about these treatments can probably help overcome this disorder.