European journal of pain : EJP
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
The causal status of pain catastrophizing: an experimental test with healthy participants.
In the current study we report findings on the effects of experimentally induced catastrophizing about pain on expected pain, experienced pain and escape/avoidance behavior during a cold pressor task in a sample of healthy participants. It was hypothesized that increasing the level of catastrophizing would result in a higher level of expected pain, a higher level of experienced pain, and a shorter duration of ice-water immersion. ⋯ The results demonstrated that despite the successful attempt to induce catastrophizing, this neither significantly affected expected pain, experienced pain, and duration of ice-water immersion, nor were these relations moderated by the pre-experimental level of catastrophizing. Although the level of catastrophizing was successfully manipulated, more similar experiments are necessary in order to give a more definite answer on the possible causal status of pain catastrophizing.