Catastrophizing, confounds, and depression: A comment on Sullivan and D'Eon (1990).
Abstract
Sullivan and D'Eon (1990) concluded that catastrophizing and depression were conceptually and operationally confounded. I argue that (a) the procedures they used to study confounding were suboptimal because multiple measures of depression and catastrophizing were not employed and (b) the distinctiveness of constructs might better be regarded as a continuous rather than all-or-none (having adequate discriminant validity versus being confounded) concept.
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Evidence indicates that pain catastrophizing is an important predictor of pain outcomes even after controlling for depression.
“evidence indicates that pain catastrophizing is an important predictor of pain outcomes even after controlling for depression.27,30,42,48,118”
From Psychological aspects of persistent pain: Current state of the science (2004) · cites this paper as [30]
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The Pain Catastrophizing Scale: Development and validation.
Sullivan, M. J. L., Bishop, S. R., & Pivik, J. (1995) · Psychological Assessment · doi:10.1037//1040-3590.7.4.524 · Cited by 8,227 · see citing works
Theoretical perspectives on the relation between catastrophizing and pain
Sullivan, M. J. L., Thorn, B., Haythornthwaite, J. A., Keefe, F., Martin, M., Bradley, L. A., & Lefebvre, J. C. (2001) · The Clinical Journal of Pain · doi:10.1097/00002508-200103000-00008 · Cited by 2,472 · see citing works
Psychological aspects of persistent pain: Current state of the science
Keefe, F. J., Rumble, M. E., Scipio, C. D., Giordano, L. A., & Perri, L. M. (2004) · The Journal of Pain · doi:10.1016/j.jpain.2004.02.576 · Cited by 897 · see citing works
Catastrophizing, pain, and disability in patients with soft-tissue injuries
Sullivan, M. J. L., Stanish, W., Waite, H., Sullivan, M., & Tripp, D. A. (1998) · Pain · doi:10.1016/s0304-3959(98)00097-9 · Cited by 593 · see citing works
Turner, J. A., Jensen, M. P., & Romano, J. M. (2000) · Pain · doi:10.1016/s0304-3959(99)00259-6 · Cited by 487 · see citing works
“…to speci®c personality styles, (2) whether catastrophizing is a coping response or an appraisal, and (3) whether catastrophizing is a cognitive response style that can be differentiated from depression (Sullivan and D'Eon, 1990; Haaga, 1992; Geisser et al., 1994; Sullivan et al., 1998).”
Granot, M., & Ferber, S. G. (2005) · The Clinical Journal of Pain · doi:10.1097/01.ajp.0000135236.12705.2d · Cited by 426 · see citing works
Catastrophizing, depression and expectancies for pain and emotional distress
Sullivan, M., Rodgers, W., & Kirsch, I. (2001) · Pain · doi:10.1016/s0304-3959(00)00430-9 · Cited by 322 · see citing works
Coping strategies predict disability in patients with primary fibromyalgia
Martin, M. Y., Bradley, L. A., Alexander, R. W., Alarcón, G. S., Triana-Alexander, M., Aaron, L. A., & Alberts, K. R. (1996) · Pain · doi:10.1016/s0304-3959(96)03179-x · Cited by 228 · see citing works
Kraaimaat, F. W., & Evers, A. W. M. (2003) · International Journal of Behavioral Medicine · doi:10.1207/s15327558ijbm1004_5 · Cited by 202 · see citing works
Thought Suppression, Catastrophizing, and Pain
Sullivan, M., Rouse, D. L., Bishop, S. R., & Johnston, S. (1997) · Cognitive Therapy and Research · doi:10.1023/a:1021809519002 · Cited by 136 · see citing works
“Given that catastrophizing has been discussed as a significant component of depression and trait anxiety, we also examined whether the relations among catastrophizing, pain and thought intrusions were independent of depression and anxiety (Clark & de Silva, 1985; Haaga, 1992; Sullivan & D'Eon, 1990; Wenzlaff, Wegner,…”
Catastrophizing, depression and pain-related disability
Arnow, B. A., Blasey, C. M., Constantino, M. J., Robinson, R., Hunkeler, E., Lee, J., Fireman, B., Khaylis, A., Feiner, L., & Hayward, C. (2011) · General Hospital Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.genhosppsych.2010.12.008 · Cited by 115 · see citing works
Severeijns, R., Vlaeyen, J. W. S., van den Hout, M. A., & Picavet, H. S. J. (2004) · Health Psychology · doi:10.1037/0278-6133.23.1.49 · Cited by 101 · see citing works
“…several studies to consider catastrophizing as a separate construct (Geisser, Robinson, & Henson, 1994; Geisser, Robinson, Keefe, & Weiner, 1994; Haaga, 1992; Keefe et al., 1989; Keefe et al., 2000; Sullivan et al., 1995, 1998; Sullivan, Rodgers, & Kirsch, 2001; Turner, Jensen, & Romano, 2000).”
Sullivan, M., Adams, H., Thibault, P., Corbière, M., & Stanish, W. (2006) · Journal of occupational rehabilitation · doi:10.1007/s10926-005-9013-0 · Cited by 100 · see citing works
“Numerous investigations have shown that negative cognitions such as catastrophic thinking are intricately linked to depressive symptoms (36–39) Clinical and experimental research shows clearly that reductions in negative cognitions yield improvements in mood (33,40).”
BackgroundAhrens, A. H., & Haaga, D. A. F. (1993) · Cognitive Therapy and Research · doi:10.1007/bf01172742 · Cited by 89 · see citing works
“Discriminant validity should perhaps not be judged in a dichotomous, present/absent fashion ( Haaga, 1992 ), and the LOT might well benefit from revision to reduce further its overlap with NA, but our results lead us to conclude that at least part of the variance in LOT scores uniquely reflects the intended construct…”
Self-citationSevereijns, R., Vlaeyen, J., van den Hout, M., & Picavet, H. S. (2005) · Journal of Pain · doi:10.1016/j.jpain.2004.11.006 · Cited by 63 · see citing works
Cognitive distortion and depression in chronic pain: association with diagnosed disorders.
Smith, T. W., O'Keeffe, J. L., & Christensen, A. J. (1994) · Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1037//0022-006x.62.1.195 · Cited by 61 · see citing works
Depression in Chronic Pain: Mistaken Models, Missed Opportunities
Williams, A. C. D. C. (1998) · Scandinavian Journal of Behaviour Therapy · doi:10.1080/02845719808408497 · Cited by 37 · see citing works
Lee, E.-J., Wu, M.-Y., Lee, G. K., Cheing, G., & Chan, F. (2008) · Journal of clinical psychology in medical settings · doi:10.1007/s10880-008-9118-7 · Cited by 31 · see citing works
“However, a limitation of the current study is related to the debate on how to accurately measure the concept of catastrophizing with pain patients (Haaga, 1992; Hirsh, George, Riley, & Robinson, 2007; Jones, Rollman, White, Hill, & Brooke, 2003; Sullivan & D’Eon, 1990; Turner, Jensen, & Romano,…”
BackgroundZafra, A. O., Toro, E. O., & Cano, L. A. (2013) · Cuadernos de Psicología del Deporte · doi:10.4321/s1578-84232013000100009 · Cited by 29 · see citing works
Huber, C., Kunz, M., Artelt, C., & Lautenbacher, S. (2010) · Pain Research and Management · doi:10.1155/2010/516176 · Cited by 29 · see citing works
Stewart, J., Kempenaar, L., & Lauchlan, D. (2011) · Manual Therapy · doi:10.1016/j.math.2010.11.005 · Cited by 20 · see citing works
Grant, L. (1997) · cIRcle (University of British Columbia) · doi:10.14288/1.0053995 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
- Authors
- Haaga, D. A.
- Affiliations
- American University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Haaga, David A.
- ORCID
- Haaga, David A.
- Venue
- Journal of Abnormal Psychology
- Published
- 1992-02
- Volume
- 101
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 206-207
- ISSN
- 0021-843X (ISSN-L)
- 1939-1846
- OpenAlex
- W2027537107
- Cited by
- 26
- References
- 7
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2013: 2 · 2012: 2
- FWCI
- 1.64
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Abnormal Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Management Science and Operations Research › Psychometric Methodologies and Testing
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pharmacology › Musculoskeletal pain and rehabilitation
- Keywords
- catastrophizing, depression, discriminant validity, pain catastrophizing
- MeSH terms
- Awareness, Depression, Humans, Pain, Personality Inventory, Psychometrics, Self Concept
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