• Hayato Shigetoh, Yoichi Tanaka, Masayuki Koga, Michihiro Osumi, and Shu Morioka.
• Department of Neurorehabilitation, Graduate School of Health Sciences, Kio University, Nara, Japan.
• Pain Res Manag. 2019 Jan 1; 2019: 3916135.

BackgroundCentral sensitization (CS) and psychological factors are associated with pain intensity; however, the mediating role of CS on the relation between psychological factors and pain intensity remains unclear.ObjectivesWe performed mediation analysis to investigate how CS mediates relation between psychological factors and pain intensity.MethodsTwenty patients with musculoskeletal pain were included in this cross-sectional study. Central sensitization inventory (CSI), one pain intensity-related outcome measure (Short-Form McGill Pain Questionnaire 2 (SFMPQ2)), and three psychological outcome measures (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), Pain Catastrophizing Scale-4 (PCS), and Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia-11 (TSK)) of all participants were assessed. The mediation analysis with a bootstrap sampling procedure was used to assess the indirect effects. The level of significance was set at 5%.ResultsMediation analysis showed that the HADS-anxiety, HADS-depression, and PCS had significant indirect effects on the pain ratings of CSI. Additionally, the direct effect was significant only for PCS.ConclusionsThe relationship among anxiety symptoms, depression symptoms, and pain intensity was completely mediated by CS. Furthermore, the relationship between catastrophic thinking and pain intensity was partially mediated by CS. Our findings suggest that CS mediates relation between psychological factors and pain intensity, and CS-focused intervention may be important.

21 keywords...

hide…