Materials and Methods: Women with OAB over the age of 18 years and healthy volunteers made up the participants in the current study. Pain intensity and quality were analysed with the Short Form of the McGill Pain Questionnaire (SF-MPQ). The Self-Leeds Assessment of Neuropathic Symptoms and Signs (LANSS) was used to assess the presence of neuropathic pain. Pain threshold was evaluated with algometer. The Pressure Pain Threshold measurement was determined as the primary outcome measure of the present study. The Overactive Bladder Awareness Tool (OAB-V8), short forms of the Incontinence Impact Questionnaire-7 (IIQ-7) and Urogenital Distress Inventory-6 (UDI-6) were used to evaluate OAB symptoms. Nottingham Health Profile (NHP) questionnaire was used to reveal quality of life and general health status.

Results: According to algometric measurements, OAB patients had lower pain thresholds in 19 anatomical points (p<0.05). A significant strong correlation was observed between the SF-MPQ, and IIQ7 (r=0.666), OAB-V8 (r=0.640), and LANSS (r=0.610), whereas there was a significant moderate correlation with UDI6 (r=0.576) (p<0.001). According to SF-MPQ, the median sensory sub-scale value was 6.5 cm, the affective sub-scale value was 2 cm and the total value was 9 cm with a pain intensity of 4.6 cm. In the healthy controls, the median of all these values were found to be zero (p=0.001).

Conclusion: This study demonstrated a decrease in pain thresholds of OAB patients and an increase in the intensity of sensory and affective characteristics of pain. These results support that central sensitization predisposes to pain syndromes in the pathophysiology of OAB.