There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.
Abstract
Pain-related fear and catastrophizing are important variables of consideration in
an individual's pain experience. Methodological limitations of previous studies limit
strong conclusions regarding these relationships. In this follow-up study, we examined
the relationships between fear of pain, pain catastrophizing, and experimental pain
perception. One hundred healthy volunteers completed the Fear of Pain Questionnaire
(FPQ-III), Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS), and Coping Strategies Questionnaire-Catastrophizing
scale (CSQ-CAT) before undergoing the cold pressor test (CPT). The CSQ-CAT and PCS
were completed again after the CPT, with participants instructed to complete these
measures based on their experience during the procedure. Measures of pain threshold,
tolerance, and intensity were collected and served as dependent variables in separate
regression models. Sex, pain catastrophizing, and pain-related fear were included
as predictor variables. Results of regression analyses indicated that after controlling
for sex, pain-related fear was a consistently stronger predictor of pain in comparison
to catastrophizing. These results were consistent when separate measures (CSQ-CAT
vs PCS) and time points (pretask vs "in vivo") of catastrophizing were used. These
findings largely corroborate those from our previous study and are suggestive of the
absolute and relative importance of pain-related fear in the experimental pain experience.
Although pain-related fear has received less attention in the experimental literature
than pain catastrophizing, results of the current study are consistent with clinical
reports highlighting this variable as an important aspect of the experience of pain.