Catastrophising – the views of people with pain

Last week I posted the first in a series on pain catastrophizing. This week, instead of looking at the measurement instruments, I thought it worthwhile seeing what people with pain feel when looking at this construct. After all, when we’re talking about us (people with pain) shouldn’t our perspectives be taken into account? Nothing about us without us. Webster and a large team of collaborators (Webster et al., 2022) conducted possibly the largest study examining the responses of people living with pain to the terms associated with catastrophising. Now the number of collaborators on this project tells you one thing, but what counts more is the quality of that study, so here goes with my attempt to understand it. Firstly, it was an international survey study conducted online with invitations distributed very widely. The study was undertaken with full collaboration and inclusion of people living with pain (who preferred the term ‘patients’ throughout). Participants were over 18 years with chronic pain, or caregivers of those with chronic pain provided they were answering as proxies for those individuals. They were initially asked four questions: (1) Have you heard of the term ‘pain catastrophising’?, (2) Where did you first hear the term ‘pain catastrophising’?, (3) Has a healthcare provider ever described you as being a ‘pain catastrophiser’ or said that you were ‘catastrophising’ your pa...
Source: HealthSkills Weblog - Category: Anesthesiology Authors: Tags: Chronic pain Cognitive skills Professional topics Psychology Research Science in practice catastrophising catastrophizing Clinical reasoning pain management Source Type: blogs