Our findings contradict assertions that self-report depressive symptom measures inflate severity scores in post-AMI patients. However, the preponderance of somatic symptoms at low score levels across groups suggests that BDI-II scores may include a small amount of somatic symptom variance not necessarily related to depression in post-AMI and non-medically ill respondents.

This study provides support for the relevance of pain anxiety in a community sample of children and adolescents and offers preliminary validity and reliability for the CPASS.

The goal of this study was to follow a cohort of patients undergoing total knee arthroplasty over time to: (1) identify and describe the various pain trajectories beginning preoperatively and for up to 12 months after surgery, (2) identify baseline predictors of trajectory group membership, and (3) identify trajectory groups associated with poor psychosocial outcomes 12 months after surgery. One hundred seventy-three participants (female = 85 [49%]; mean age [years] = 62.9, SD = 6.8) completed pain and psychological questionnaires and functional performance tests preoperatively and 4 days, 6 weeks, and 3 and 12 months after total knee arthroplasty. Using growth mixture modeling, results showed that a 4-group model, with a quadratic slope and baseline pain data predicting trajectory group membership, best fit the data (Akaike information criterion = 2772.27). The first 3 pain trajectories represent various rates of recovery ending with relatively low levels of pain 12 months after surgery. Group 4, the constant high pain group, comprises patients who have a neutral or positive pain slope and do not show improvement in their pain experience over the first year after surgery. This model suggests that preoperative pain levels are predictive of pain trajectory group membership and moderate preoperative pain, as opposed to low or high pain, is a risk factor for a neutral or positive pain trajectory postoperatively. Consistent with previous studies, these results show that postoperative pain is not a homogeneous condition and point to the importance of examining intraindividual pain fluctuations as they relate to pain interventions and prevention strategies.

The Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS) was developed in English to assess 3 components of catastrophizing (rumination, magnification, helplessness). It has been adapted for use and validated with Flemish-speaking children (Pain Catastrophizing Scale for Children [PCS-C]) and French-speaking adolescents. The PCS-C has been back-translated to English and used extensively in research with English-speaking children; however, the factorial validity of the English PCS-C has not been empirically examined. This study assessed the factor structure of the English PCS-C among a community sample of 1,006 English-speaking children (aged 8-18 years). Exploratory factor analysis was conducted using a random subsample (n = 504) to assess the underlying factor structure. Items with poor factor loadings were removed. Confirmatory factor analysis, using the second subsample (n = 502), was used to cross-validate the factor structure revealed by exploratory factor analysis and compare it to the original 3-factor model and other model variants. Exploratory factor analysis revealed that the original PCS-C and a revised 3-factor model comprising 11 of the original 13 PCS-C items, all loading on their original factors, provided adequate fit to the data. The revised model provided statistically better fit to the data compared to all other model variants, suggesting that the English PCS-C may be better understood using a revised 11-item oblique 3-factor model.Perspective: This is the first examination of the factorial validity of the widely used English version of the PCS-C in a large community sample of English-speaking children. A revised 11-item, 3-factor model provided statistically better fit to the data compared to the original model and other model variants.