A Biopsychosocial Model for Pelvic Girdle Pain: A Contemporary Evidence-Based Perspective

Abstract

Pelvic girdle pain (PGP) is now used as an umbrella term for musculoskeletal disorders in pain in the region of the pelvis and are associated with disability. For the majority of subjects there is no readily identifiable pathological process underlying PGP, and approaching these disorders from a biomedical standpoint is one of the factors that has resulted in poor outcomes for many subjects with PGP. Contemporary understanding of chronic pain as multidimensional biopsychosocial disorders is consistent with how PGP disorders present. Biopsychosocial factors may interact in a complex top-down/bottom-up manner to drive pain and pain behaviours. Thorough assessment based on this biopsychosocial model allows for diagnosis and classification of subjects with PGP disorders. This process will inform a cognitive-functional approach to management that specifically targets the underlying mechanisms driving the disorder.