• Vani A Mathur, Kasey B Kiley, C Patrick Carroll, Robert R Edwards, Sophie Lanzkron, Jennifer A Haythornthwaite, and Claudia M Campbell.
• Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland; Department of Psychology, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas. Electronic address: vmathur@tamu.edu.
• J Pain. 2016 Nov 1; 17 (11): 1227-1236.

AbstractCatastrophizing is a potent psychological modulator of pain across several chronic pain populations; yet despite evidence that patients with sickle cell disease (SCD) catastrophize more than patients with other chronic pain conditions, previous research indicates that catastrophizing is not related to sickle cell pain after controlling for relevant covariates such as depression. Recent research suggests that pain-related catastrophizing should be assessed across pain contexts (eg, dispositional and situational). In this study, we measured disease-specific, general non-disease-related, and situational catastrophizing and assessed the relationship between these contextual dimensions of catastrophizing and laboratory and clinical pain among patients with SCD. Results revealed differential catastrophizing across pain contexts, with patients reporting greater catastrophizing about SCD-specific pain compared with non-SCD pain and laboratory pain. SCD-specific and non-SCD catastrophizing were associated with clinical pain outcomes, and situational catastrophizing with markers of central sensitization and laboratory pain. Further examination of the time course of laboratory responses revealed that increases in situational catastrophizing were associated with subsequent increases in laboratory pain sensitivity. Taken together, results show the relevance of catastrophizing in understanding pain in SCD, and suggest that context-specific anchors may be beneficial in predicting different aspects of the pain experience (eg, chronic pain, pain sensitization).Copyright © 2016 American Pain Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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