Pain beliefs and coping attempts

Biopsychosocial Correlates of Adjustment to Pain Among People With Multiple Sclerosis

“…It reflects emotive thinking about pain that is concerned with ruminating, magnifying, or exaggerating the threat of pain, and feelings of helplessness about pain. 54 Although there is some debate in the literature as to whether or not catastrophizing represents a coping strategy, 55 Keefe and colleagues 26 have argued that it functions as a ''coping response designed to deal with the negative emotions caused by persistent pain by eliciting proximity to and support from others'' (Ref. 26, p. 197).…”

Pain and emotion: New research directions

“…A lingering concern about research addressing the link between catastrophizing and pain link has been the lack of theoretical model of pain catastrophizing (e.g., Geisser, Robinson, & Riley, 1999a, 1999bHaythornthwaite, & Heinberg, 1999;Keefe, Lefebvre, & Smith, 1999;Thorn, Rich, & Boothby, 1999). Although several theoretical models have been advanced, a coping perspective offers an appealing framework for understanding the relationship.…”

Do we need a communal coping model of pain catastrophizing? An alternative explanation

“…Despite the growing body of research on pain catastrophizing (for an extensive overview see Sullivan et al, 2001), there is still conceptual confusion about the construct, which revolves around the question whether or not pain catastrophizing is to be considered a form of coping. An illustrative example of the polemic around this question can be found in a 1999 issue of Pain Forum (Geisser et al, 1999;Haythornthwaite and Heinberg, 1999;Keefe et al, 1999;Thorn et al, 1999). Related to this conceptual confusion is the lack of a guiding theoretical framework (Keefe et al, 2004).…”