News · May 29, 2025

Rodolphe Maheux Award 2025 presented to Amelia Mardon

The 2025 Rodolphe Maheux Award for best Oral Presentation by an Early Career Clinician was awarded to Amelia Mardon at the closing ceremony of the 16th World Congress on Endometriosis for her presentation on Pain Science Education Concepts for Pelvic Pain: An e-Delphi of Expert Clinicians

A Mardon^1,2, H Leake¹, M Wilson^2,3, E Karran², R Parker⁴, R Malani⁵, L Moseley², J Chalmers²

¹NICM Health Research Institute, Western Sydney University, Westmead, Australia
²IIMPACT in Health, UniSA, Adelaide, Australia
³Persistent Pain Research Group, UniSA, Adelaide, Australia
⁴Department of Anaesthesia and Perioperative Medicine, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
⁵MGM School of Physiotherapy, Aurangabad, A constituent unit of MGMIHS, Maharashtra, India

Country: Australia

Introduction/Background

Pain science education (PSE) involves learning about the biology of pain. However, PSE is yet to be thoroughly investigated for persistent pelvic pain potentially due to the lack of targeted curricula. This study gained consensus on PSE learning concepts important for persistent pelvic pain according to expert clinicians.

Materials and Methods

A three-round e-Delphi survey was conducted to generate and gain consensus on important PSE learning concepts for female persistent pelvic pain among 20 international, multidisciplinary expert clinicians. Learning concepts generated by clinicians were rated by importance using a six-point Likert scale. Concepts were considered important if they had a median rating important >3.0. Consensus on importance rating was considered reached for items with an interquartile range <1.0.

Results

The panel included expert clinicians from seven countries and six healthcare professions. Most clinicians (40%) had 20+ years of experience in pelvic pain. Overall, the expert clinicians generated 125 PSE learning concepts that were considered important for persistent pelvic pain; 92 (73.6%) learning concepts reached consensus on their importance rating. Of the 125 learning concepts, 102 were generated for persistent pelvic pain in general, and were categorised into 13 overarching PSE concepts (e.g., persistent pelvic pain involves changes to the brain and nervous system; many factors influence persistent pelvic pain). Sixteen concepts were generated for specific pelvic pain conditions (e.g., endometriosis) and seven concepts for specific life stages (e.g., adolescence).

Conclusion

This study provides the first list of key PSE concepts for persistent pelvic pain developed by expert clinicians. These concepts share similarities to those valued by consumers.¹ Taken together, they provide a framework for developing and implementing PSE curricula for persistent pelvic pain in research and clinical settings.

Key words

Pain science education, pelvic pain, patient education

References

1. Mardon AK, Chalmers KJ, Heathcote LC, Curtis LA, Freedman L, Malani R, Parker R, Neumann PB, Moseley GL, Leake HB. “I wish I knew then what I know now”—pain science education concepts important for female persistent pelvic pain: a reflexive thematic analysis. Pain. 2024 Sep 1;165(9):1990-2001.

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News · November 30, 2023

Rodolphe Maheux Award 2023 presented to Scott MacKenzie

The 2023 Rodolphe Maheux Award for best Clinical Abstract was presented to Scott MacKenzie at the closing ceremony of the 15th World Congress on Endometriosis for his work on how Genome-wide association reveals a locus in Neuregulin 3 associated with gabapentin efficacy in women with chronic pelvic pain.

MacKenzie S1, Rahmioglu N2,3, Collins F1, Coxon L3, Vincent K3, Zondervan K2,3, Horne A1, Whitaker L1
1MRC Centre for Reproductive Health, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom, 2Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom, 3Nuffield Department of Women’s & Reproductive Health, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom

Introduction:
Chronic pelvic pain (CPP) in women with no obvious pelvic pathology has few evidence-based treatment options. Our recent multicentre randomised controlled trial (GaPP2) in women with CPP showed that gabapentin did not relieve pain and was associated with higher rates of side-effects than placebo. However, the data suggest that subgroups of women could benefit from gabapentin.

Aim:
To identify if common genetic variants are associated with gabapentin response in women with CPP with no obvious pelvic pathology.

Materials and Methods:
We conducted a genome-wide association study of gabapentin response, using participants from GaPP2. Two phenotypes were investigated: gabapentin analgesic response (≥30% reduction in worst and/or average pain), and side-effect burden (≥3 side-effects reported). Standard genetic quality control was conducted followed by imputation to HRC reference panel. Frequentist association analysis was conducted in SNPTEST including autosomes and chromosome X.

Results:
93 participants provided salivary samples for genotyping (82 passed quality control) and 5,522,729 SNPs were tested for association (n=29 ≥30% vs. n=42 <30% reduction in worst and/or average pain scores). One genome-wide significant association with gabapentin analgesic response was identified, rs4442490, an intron variant located in Neuregulin 3 (NRG3) at 10q23.1 (p=2.11×10−8; OR=18.82 (95%CI 4.86–72.83);
MAF=0.42). NRG3 is expressed predominantly in brain tissues and involved in nervous system maintenance/repair. No SNPs reached genome-wide significance for gabapentin side-effect burden.

Conclusion and impact:
A locus in NRG3 is associated with gabapentin efficacy in women with CPP with no obvious pelvic pathology, highlighting the possibility of a precision medicine approach to symptom management.

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