(328) Pain catastrophizing assessed before and after experimental pain testing: Temporal stability and relations with pain and nociception

Abstract

Recent evidence suggests the relationship between pain catastrophizing and experimental pain may depend on when catastrophizing is assessed. Specifically, catastrophizing measured during or after pain testing better predicts pain outcomes than catastrophizing measured before pain testing. This study assessed pain catastrophizing from subscales (rumination, magnification, helplessness) of the Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS) in 30 participants before and after pain testing. Electrodermal stimuli were delivered over the sural nerve to assess nociceptive flexion reflex (NFR) threshold, pain threshold, and pain tolerance. Three ascending-descending series of stimuli were first delivered to assess NFR threshold, followed by a short break, and then the stimuli were increased until pain tolerance was reached (or 40 mA maximum). Following every stimulus, participants rated their subjective reaction on a 0 (no sensation) to 100 (maximum tolerable) scale in which pain was anchored at 50. In the last ascending series, pain threshold was defined as the stimulus intensity that was rated 50, and pain tolerance was the stimulus intensity rated 100. Immediately following pain testing, participants also rated their overall subjective pain using the McGill Pain Questionnaire-short form (MPQ-SF). All procedures were IRB approved. Results suggested PCS subscale means were similar preand post-test (ps .65); however, test-retest correlations were non-significant (rs -.02 to .07, ps .71). Moreover, most relationships between PCS subscales and pain outcomes were only significant for catastrophizing assessed post-pain-testing. Post-test rumination, magnification, and helplessness were associated with MPQ-SF ratings, and post-test magnification was associated with pain threshold and tolerance (ps .05). Surprisingly, pre-test helplessness was positively correlated with NFR threshold and negatively correlated with MPQ-SF affective ratings (ps .05). These results contribute to the growing literature suggesting the relationships between pain catastrophizing and experimental pain depend on the timing of assessment. This research was supported by an Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology grant.