Rename Pain Catastrophizing (Stanford study/survey)

[rvallee]

A project from what seems to be the Stanford Division of Pain Medicine surveying the patient community over the notion of pain catastrophising and how to better define and label it.

I did not manage to offer an alternative name. I am not fond of the proffered alternatives either. It's pretty short to take and comments are optional.

This is a patient-centered project being led by a group of committed pain researchers, patients, patient advocates, and healthcare professionals.

We aim to understand the perspective of patients, researchers and healthcare professionals with regard to the term “pain catastrophizing.” We will be collecting and collating the information we receive from your responses to help us understand whether it’s time for a change in the use of this term—and to possibly create new terminology that is compassionate, patient-centered, and more considerate for use in the medical community.

One of the reasons the term is so horrible is because the very concept is weaponized by psychosomatic charlatans. I'm not sure how that problem can be addressed as only medicine can police their own and this is a basic quality control issue, where patients play no role. I'm not sure what impact this could have as long as people are allowed to make baseless assertions and basically game the scientific publishing process promising magical cures.

Still, this looks like a sincere effort and worth participating.

https://renamepc.stanford.edu/

 

[spinoza577]

I answered as social worker, which I have been:

Q: Please tell us what first comes to your mind when you hear the term pain catastrophizing.

A: For me, having had chronical pain myself for 15 years, there hasn´t been any catastrophizing. It was there and I tried not to pay attention.
With acute sever pain (say canal tooth pain or trigenimus pain) this is not possible.
In my experience the term has no sense.

Q: Is there anything else you would like to tell us on this topic? Please feel free to attach a separate page if you’d like to provide further comments or insights.

A: You can manage to endure or recognize pain, but you can not change pain. Same with tinnitus.
You can interpret sensory data (this should be in fact part of perception), but you cannot change the sensory input.
---
Instead of "recognize" I might better have written "focus on". This may have been the meaning of the term. But the direction the question comes from is wrong.

 

[JemPD]

I did it but the trouble is I think it's the concept of it (as used by lots of BPSers) that needs changing. Not the name.

 

[Milo]

One of the reasons the term is so horrible is because the very concept is weaponized by psychosomatic charlatans

That is the exact term, @rvallee, weaponized. Thank you.

 

[Keela Too]

So, I did the survey too.... and may have been a tad verbose in my responses.... oopsie!

 

[Keela Too]

I did it but the trouble is I think it's the concept of it (as used by lots of BPSers) that needs changing. Not the name.

Funnily enough, that’s what I said too... in a slightly long winded way.

 

[Milo]

I did it but the trouble is I think it's the concept of it (as used by lots of BPSers) that needs changing. Not the name.

Unfortunately, the name will forever be associated with its supposedly correct and incorrect meaning. Both have to go.

 

[Forbin]

How about the more objective term "practitioner insouciance." I bet that would go over big in the medical community.

 

[Andy]

"Needless moral judgement about the level of pain a patient feels"?

 

[DigitalDrifter]

Pain catastrophizing is just a modern word for hypochondriac. It shouldn't be applied to anyone without objective proof.

 

[Milo]

From one of the questions that were asked, they seem to be focus on replacing the name to be more acceptable for the patients, and i appreciate their efforts, I think it is much needed to respect and believe the patients when they express and explain the impact of their pain. However for me, much work needs to be made in having a biomarker that would confirm the pathology and a target to correct the pathology. Focusing on the emotional response and the downstream effect of the disease will never correct the pathology but perpetuates the fact that the emotional response is the pathology. We have been there in the past... Hysterical paralysis, anyone? type A personality related to stomach ulcers? Scientists can break through.

 

[Squeezy]

Focusing on the emotional response and the downstream effect of the disease will never correct the pathology but perpetuates the fact that the emotional response is the pathology.