Higher Levels Of Catastrophizing Research Articles

Coping, catastrophizing and chronic pain in breast cancer.

This cross-sectional study investigated the relationships between individual differences in coping and catastrophizing, and markers of adaptation to chronic pain associated with breast cancer. Sixty-eight breast cancer patients with chronic pain due to either cancer or cancer-treatment were administered self-report instruments that assess active and passive coping, catastrophizing, pain, disability, and mood disturbance. Regression analyses were performed to investigate the unique contribution of differences in coping and catastrophizing to the various markers of adaptation. Both active and passive coping explained unique variance in self-reported disability; active coping was associated with less disability while passive coping was associated with greater disability. Catastrophizing explained unique variance in anxiety and depression scores; higher levels of catastrophizing were associated with greater emotional distress. The results suggest that coping and catastrophizing may contribute to different outcomes in chronic pain in breast cancer patients and provides preliminary evidence that they may be important targets of psychological treatments.

Self-Reported Abuse History and Pain Complaints among Young Adults

Considerable evidence suggests that a self-reported history of physical and/or sexual abuse is more frequently reported among chronic pain populations and is associated with poorer adjustment to pain. However, previous research has typically included patients seeking treatment for pain, whereas few population-based studies have explored the association between abuse history and pain. This purpose of this study was to examine the association between self-reported history of sexual or physical abuse and recent pain complaints, health-related variables, and psychological disturbance among a nonclinical sample of young adults. Subjects were 426 (275 female, 151 male) college students who completed a series of questionnaires assessing abuse history, recent pain, health care utilization, perceived health, and psychological variables. Females reported a positive history of abuse (PHA) more frequently than males (43.5% vs. 23.8%), and females reported significantly higher rates for all types of abuse except physical abuse during childhood (p < 0.05). PHA subjects reported experiencing pain in more sites and pain of higher severity over the past month compared to subjects with a negative history of abuse (NHA) (p < 0.05). PHA subjects also reported more health care utilization and greater psychological disturbance, including depression, somatization, negative temperament, and higher levels of catastrophizing (p < 0.05). Interestingly, when somatization and depression scale scores were used as covariates, group differences in pain complaints and health care utilization became nonsignificant (p > 0.10). These findings suggest that a self-reported history of physical or sexual abuse is associated with increased pain complaints, health care utilization, and psychological disturbance even among young adults from a nonclinical population. Moreover, the association between abuse and pain complaints appears to be moderated at least in part by the higher levels of somatization and depression observed in the PHA group.

Specific Cognitive Content of Anxiety and Catastrophizing: Looming Vulnerability and the Looming Maladaptive Style

The present study examined the hypothesis, stimulated by the looming vulnerability model of anxiety (Riskind, 1997), that the mental activity of catastrophizing is related to both the general looming maladaptive style and looming vulnerability to potential catastrophes. The looming maladaptive style is a higher-order, more global and abstract characteristic framework that functions as a danger schema to produce cognitive vulnerability to anxiety, whereas looming vulnerability to potential catastrophes is a lower-order sense of looming vulnerability to potential catastrophes in specific situations. In addition, the present study attempted to replicate the findings of Vasey and Borkovec (1992) between catastrophizing, worry, and likelihood, using a self-report version of the structured interview in their study. One hundred thirty-eight undergraduates completed the self-report measure of catastrophizing (LOCO-Q), the looming maladaptive style questionnaire, and several measures of worry. Our results provide strong evidence for the replicability of Vasey and Borkovec’s (1992) findings and provide new evidence for a broader role of looming vulnerability in the cognitive phenomenology of catastrophizing. Specifically, they demonstrate that both looming vulnerability to potential catastrophes and the looming maladaptive style are integrally related to the mental activity of catastrophizing. Further, results suggest the plausibility of a mediated model in which the effects of the general looming maladaptive style are transmitted through specific looming vulnerability to possible catastrophes to produce higher levels of catastrophizing. Additionally, results suggest that the looming maladaptive style is the only variable that significantly predicts gains in catastrophizing over time. The results of this study are consistent with a series of studies that we have conducted in the last several years, demonstrating that the looming maladaptive style functions as a danger schema for threat-related information and produces a cognitive vulnerability to anxiety.