School of Medicine and Health Sciences Poster Presentations
Does Pain Catastrophizing Predict Functioning?
Poster Number
235
Document Type
Poster
Publication Date
3-2016
Abstract
Introduction: Pain catastrophizing is an exaggerated negative response to an actual or anticipated painful experience. Sullivan et al. created the pain catastrophizing scale (PCS) to help better quantify the level a patient catastrophizes. Recent studies focus on pain catastrophizing as a predictor of pain severity, distress, and quality of life. Evaluation of pain catastrophizing and its association with baseline characteristics could help identify patients who are at high-risk of catastrophizing. Furthermore, determining if pain catastrophizing is a predictor of daily functioning may help target therapy for high-risk patients.
Materials and Methods: With IRB approval, the Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS) and an additional questionnaire were randomly administered to 65 chronic pain patients at GW pain clinic between January 2015 and June 2015. Data included age, gender, duration, cause of pain, and opioid use. The additional questionnaire assessed the impact of pain on the following aspects of daily functioning: activity, mood, walking, relations, sleep, enjoyment of life, and work. Each was scored on a 1 to 10 scale, where 1 indicated least amount of interference to functioning and 10 indicated greatest amount of interference. For each subject these scores were averaged to determine an overall functioning score (OF). Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient (r) was used to assess relationship between PCS score and OF.
Results: There were no significant associations between patient baseline variables and the PCS score including: age, opioid use, gender, and cause of pain. The association between PCS and OF resulted in a Pearson r of 0.53 (p<.0001), indicating a strong positive linear association. After adjusting for possible confounding effects of age, gender, known cause of pain, and other-cause, PCS remained significantly associated with overall functioning (p=.0004). In the adjusted model, each 10-point increase in PCS was associated with a 0.8-point increase in OF.
Conclusion: There was no significant association between PCS score and baseline variables including age, gender, opioid use, or cause of pain. Based on this patient population, the mechanism of pain catastrophizing is not related to etiology, treatment modality, or patient demographics. However, PCS score was significantly associated with the overall functioning score (p = 0.0004). Patients with a higher PCS score, had greater interference with daily functioning. These results suggest PCS score can be used as a predictor of daily functioning.
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Open Access
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Does Pain Catastrophizing Predict Functioning?
Introduction: Pain catastrophizing is an exaggerated negative response to an actual or anticipated painful experience. Sullivan et al. created the pain catastrophizing scale (PCS) to help better quantify the level a patient catastrophizes. Recent studies focus on pain catastrophizing as a predictor of pain severity, distress, and quality of life. Evaluation of pain catastrophizing and its association with baseline characteristics could help identify patients who are at high-risk of catastrophizing. Furthermore, determining if pain catastrophizing is a predictor of daily functioning may help target therapy for high-risk patients.
Materials and Methods: With IRB approval, the Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS) and an additional questionnaire were randomly administered to 65 chronic pain patients at GW pain clinic between January 2015 and June 2015. Data included age, gender, duration, cause of pain, and opioid use. The additional questionnaire assessed the impact of pain on the following aspects of daily functioning: activity, mood, walking, relations, sleep, enjoyment of life, and work. Each was scored on a 1 to 10 scale, where 1 indicated least amount of interference to functioning and 10 indicated greatest amount of interference. For each subject these scores were averaged to determine an overall functioning score (OF). Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient (r) was used to assess relationship between PCS score and OF.
Results: There were no significant associations between patient baseline variables and the PCS score including: age, opioid use, gender, and cause of pain. The association between PCS and OF resulted in a Pearson r of 0.53 (p<.0001), indicating a strong positive linear association. After adjusting for possible confounding effects of age, gender, known cause of pain, and other-cause, PCS remained significantly associated with overall functioning (p=.0004). In the adjusted model, each 10-point increase in PCS was associated with a 0.8-point increase in OF.
Conclusion: There was no significant association between PCS score and baseline variables including age, gender, opioid use, or cause of pain. Based on this patient population, the mechanism of pain catastrophizing is not related to etiology, treatment modality, or patient demographics. However, PCS score was significantly associated with the overall functioning score (p = 0.0004). Patients with a higher PCS score, had greater interference with daily functioning. These results suggest PCS score can be used as a predictor of daily functioning.
Comments
Presented at: GW Research Days 2016