Knowing What We Are Talking About: The Case of Pain Catastrophizing

There are many ways in which science can go wrong. The well-known replication crisis in many disciplines has awakened the scientific community to this 16 Korbmacher M. Azevedo F. Pennington C.R. et al. The replication crisis has led to positive structural, procedural, and community changes. Commun Psychol. 2023; 1 (s44271-023-00003-2)3https://doi.org/10.1038/s44271-023-00003-2 Crossref Google Scholar . In response, there are continuing efforts to reduce systematic biases in results stemming from limitations in research designs and statistical analyses. There are calls for preregistration of protocols, sharing data 16 Korbmacher M. Azevedo F. Pennington C.R. et al. The replication crisis has led to positive structural, procedural, and community changes. Commun Psychol. 2023; 1 (s44271-023-00003-2)3https://doi.org/10.1038/s44271-023-00003-2 Crossref Google Scholar , and to take action when results are narrated more favorably than they actually are 22 Moore A. Fisher E. Karadag P. Crombez G. Straube S. Eccleston C. Narrative bias ('spin') is common in randomised trials and systematic reviews of cannabinoids for pain. Pain. 2023 Aug 21; (In press. doi: [insert DOI here if available]) Google Scholar . Pain Catastrophizing: Controversies, Misconceptions and Future DirectionsThe Journal of PainPreviewRecent reports have pointed to problems with the term 'pain catastrophizing'. Critiques of the term pain catastrophizing have come from several sources including individuals with chronic pain, advocates for individuals with chronic pain, and pain scholars. Reports indicate that the term has been used to dismiss the medical basis of pain complaints, to question the authenticity of pain complaints, and to blame individuals with pain for their pain condition. In this paper, we advance the position that the problems prompting calls to rename the construct of pain catastrophizing have little to do with the term, and as such, changing the term will do little to solve these problems. Full-Text PDF Open Access