The Relationship Between Pain Catastrophizing and Outcomes of a 3-Week Comprehensive Pain Rehabilitation Program

Abstract

OBJECTIVE : Pain catastrophizing is an important predictor of functioning and disability among individuals with chronic pain, and modification of catastrophic interpretations of pain is a proposed treatment mechanism of pain rehabilitation. The purpose of the current study is to examine the relationship between changes in catastrophic thinking and treatment outcomes for a large sample of patients with chronic pain. METHODS : 648 adult patients with chronic pain completed a 3-week intensive outpatient comprehensive pain rehabilitation program. Measures of pain severity, pain-related life interference, depression, and pain catastrophizing were completed at admission and discharge. RESULTS : Consistent with prior research, pain catastrophizing was associated with several negative pain-related outcomes. Results of a within-subjects mediational analysis indicated that pain catastrophizing not only improved during the treatment program, but also accounted for a significant portion of the variance in the reduction of pain severity, pain interference, and depression at the end of treatment. CONCLUSIONS : This study adds further support to the position that pain catastrophizing has a detrimental role in adaptation to chronic pain, and that this construct can be successfully modified in treatment to improve patient outcomes.

Predictors of disability in patients with chronic low back pain

“…Table I outlines the patients' socio-demographic data. [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28]. The high catastrophizers (44.74%) had significantly higher scores (VAS -7 [5][6][7]), BDI -16 [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30] and ODI -38 [34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43]…”

Understanding the physical and psychological impairments and associated disability characterising individuals with ankle symptoms and osteoarthritis

“…Perhaps unsurprisingly, our study data identified a relationship between greater pain catastrophizing and higher severity of ankle pain. This is consistent with previous research that reported a relationship between pain catastrophizing and pain intensity 415,425,426,427 , but not self-reported function 428 . Thus, pain catastrophizing should be assessed in individuals with chronic ankle symptoms, particularly those with high pain severity.…”

Pain Catastrophizing in Older Adults with Chronic Pain: The Mediator Effect of Mood Using a Path Analysis Approach

“…In pain rehabilitation, catastrophizing is described as a maladaptive coping strategy [36,37]. Improvement of maladaptive coping strategies is an important goal of comprehensive pain rehabilitation programs.…”

“…Improvement of maladaptive coping strategies is an important goal of comprehensive pain rehabilitation programs. To achieve good rehabilitation results, the comprehensive rehabilitation process (i.e., interdisciplinary pain treatment according toInternational Association for the Study of Pain; IASP) considers many factors, focusing on the whole person rather than biomedical factors [36].…”