Dr. Pukall joined the Department of Psychology at Queen’s University in 2004. She is the Director of the Sexual Health Research Laboratory (SexLab) and the Director of the Sex and Relationship Therapy Service at the Queen's Psychology Clinic. Her research has been funded by several agencies including the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the National Vulvodynia Association. She teaches courses related to sexuality at the undergraduate and graduate levels, and she has won several awards related to her teaching, research, and service.
Research Interests
Dr. Pukall uses multiple methodologies to examine different aspects of human sexuality focusing on sexual health. These methodologies range from self-report measures, to brain and blood flow imaging methods, to quantitative sensory testing, and to sexual psychophysiology. She conducts inclusive research on clinical and non-clinical populations. Recent clinical populations of interest include patients with vulvodynia, persistent genital arousal disorder/genitopelvic dysesthesia, and post-SSRI sexual dysfunction, and she ensures representation of sexual and gender/sex minorities in her work. Dr. Pukall has also developed several questionnaires assessing, for example, sexual flexibility, chronic vulvar pain, and genital arousal sensations.
Selected Publications
Goldstein I, Komisaruk BR, Pukall CF, Kim NN, Goldstein AT, Goldstein SW, Hartzell-Cushanick R, Kellogg-Spadt S, Kim CW, Jackowich RA, Parish SJ, Patterson A, Peters KM, Pfaus JG. (2021). International Society for the Study of Women’s Sexual Health (ISSWSH) Review of Epidemiology and Pathophysiology, and a consensus nomenclature and process of care for the management of Persistent Genital Arousal Disorder/Genito-Pelvic Dysesthesia (PGAD/GPD). Journal of Sexual Medicine, 18, 665-697. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsxm.2021.01.172
Yessick L, Pukall CF, Ioachim G, Chamberlain SM, Stroman P (2021). An investigation of descending pain modulation in women with provoked vestibulodynia: Alterations of brain connectivity. Frontiers in Pain Research, 2: 682484. doi: 10.3389/fpain.2021.682484
Pukall CF, Bergeron S, Rosen NO, Jackowich R (2020). Persistent genitopelvic pain: Classification, comorbidities, chronicity, and interpersonal factors. Current Sexual Health Reports, 12, 15-23. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11930-020-00239-7
Sutton KS, Yessick LR, Wild CJ, Chamberlain SM, Pukall CF (2020). Exploring the neural correlates of touch and pain in women with provoked vestibulodynia. Pain, 161, 926-937. doi: 10.1097/j.pain.0000000000001778.
Pukall CF, Bergeron S, Brown C, Bachmann G, Wesselmann U (2017). Recommendations for self-report outcome measures in vulvodynia clinical trials. Clinical Journal of Pain, 33, 756-765. DOI: 10.1097/AJP.0000000000000453
Link to pubmed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=pukall+c
Lab
www.sexlab.ca