Excessive Worry About Pain May Cause Cascade of Problems

Pain catastrophizing — a condition in which a patient’s concerns about pain are exaggerated or overblown — has been associated with an array of negative outcomes, including opioid misuse and greater disability. The issue has caught the attention of some in workers’ compensation, including scientists at the now-defunct Liberty Mutual Research Institute, who said this year that they saw a possible role for catastrophizing in the transition from acute to chronic in cases of low back pain. In an article published in the Journal of Applied Biobehavioral Research in Ma...