Catastrophizing: a predictive factor for postoperative pain

Abstract

Background: postsurgical pain is a major cause of delayed recovery and discharge after surgery. A significant proportion of patients develop chronic postsurgical pain, which affects their quality of life. Cognitive and psychological factors are reported to play a significant role in the severity of reported postsurgical pain. High levels of catastrophizing are associated with a heightened pain experience and appear to contribute to the development of chronic pain. This article describes the concept of pain catastrophizing, its association with postsurgical pain, and its potential role in the management of postsurgical pain and postsurgical quality of life.

Methods: data for this review were identified from MEDLINE, EMBASE, and PsycINFO. Reference lists of selected articles were cross-searched for additional literature.

Results: High catastrophizing levels were found to be associated with increased pain severity, increased incidence of development of chronic pain, and poorer quality of life after surgery. There was no consensus on the relation between catastrophizing and analgesia consumption.

Conclusions: identifying and reducing catastrophizing levels can help to optimize pain management in surgical patients.