“…Although these findings are significant, they are limited by recent research indicating that screening instruments, such as the PHQ, are not specific to depression but are actually indicators of general psychological distress rather than major depressive disorder (Katz et al, 2021; McCord & Provost, 2020). Owing to high comorbidity between psychopathology and chronic pain, instruments used in presurgical psychological evaluations (PPEs) must have high levels of sensitivity, specificity, and discriminant validity for the specific constructs that predict recovery (Block et al, 2013), and some instruments have not met these standards (e.g., Kaye et al, 2022). Whereas many instruments assess negative emotionality, the MMPI-3 includes well-validated scales that measure demoralization (i.e., general distress similar to that measured by the PHQ; McCord & Provost, 2020), low positive emotionality (i.e., anhedonia), negative emotionality, as well as relevant narrower constructs such as malaise, neurological complains, family problems, substance abuse, and anger proneness with good discriminant validity (Ben-Porath & Tellegen, 2020a, 2020b).…”