Escuela de Psicología, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile.
Pain Med. 2021 Nov 26;22(11):2542-2549. doi: 10.1093/pm/pnab144.
Pain catastrophizing is an important psychological predictor of pain. Recent evidence suggests the relationship between catastrophizing and pain intensity could be bidirectional, but most studies have been conducted on chronic pain patients and using criticized statistical methods. The present study aimed to examine if the relationship between pain intensity and catastrophizing was bidirectional in the context of childbirth.
A total of 504 women without chronic pain were recruited on their 32-37 gestational week. They completed measures of catastrophizing and pain intensity on the first encounter and then again at 1, 3, and 6 months postpartum. The temporal relationship between the variables was assessed using a random intercept cross-lagged panel model.
The hypothesis of reciprocal association did not receive support, as pain intensity predicted catastrophizing during the postpartum period, but catastrophizing did not show an effect over pain intensity at any moment.
Pain intensity predicting catastrophizing is consistent with previous literature, while the lack of effect of catastrophizing over pain intensity is an unexpected result, which may suggest that catastrophizing plays a different role in the postpartum period. These results highlight the importance of timely efforts for pain management during the postpartum period and contribute to the theoretical conceptualization of catastrophizing.
疼痛灾难化是疼痛的一个重要心理预测指标。最近的证据表明，灾难化和疼痛强度之间的关系可能是双向的，但大多数研究都是在慢性疼痛患者中进行的，并且使用了有批评的统计方法。本研究旨在检验在分娩背景下，疼痛强度和灾难化之间的关系是否是双向的。
共有 504 名无慢性疼痛的妇女在妊娠 32-37 周时被招募。她们在第一次就诊时完成了灾难化和疼痛强度的测量，然后在产后 1、3 和 6 个月再次进行测量。使用随机截距交叉滞后面板模型评估变量之间的时间关系。
反向关联的假设没有得到支持，因为疼痛强度在产后期间预测了灾难化，但灾难化在任何时候都没有对疼痛强度产生影响。
疼痛强度预测灾难化与先前的文献一致，而灾难化对疼痛强度没有影响的结果则出人意料，这可能表明灾难化在产后阶段发挥了不同的作用。这些结果强调了在产后期间及时进行疼痛管理的重要性，并为灾难化的理论概念化做出了贡献。
