The Influence of Chronic Pain and Catastrophizing on Patient Outcomes in an Athletic Therapy Setting

Chronic pain is a challenge for Athletic Trainers and Athletic Therapists working in a clinical or university setting. The fear avoidance model, including catastrophizing, is well established in other health professions but is not established in Athletic Training and Athletic Therapy and may affect rehabilitation outcomes.

To measure the influence of catastrophizing on rehabilitation outcomes of patients being treated in an Athletic Therapy setting.

Prospective single group pre-post design.

Student Athletic Therapy clinic.

A total of 92 patients were evaluated at initial assessment, and 49 were evaluated at follow-up.

All participants completed self-reported function questionnaires to assess level of injury and then received individualized treatments for a variety of musculoskeletal injuries. All measures were completed at initial assessment and at follow-up approximately 6 weeks later.

The authors measured function using a variety of patient self-reported functional questionnaires: the Disability of the Arm, Shoulder, and Hand; Lower Extremity Functional Scale; the Neck Disability Index; and the Oswestry Disability Index depending on injury site. Catastrophizing was measured using the Pain Catastrophizing Scale.

Function significantly improved from the initial assessment to the follow-up (P > .001). Patients with acute pain experienced a significantly greater improvement in function between the initial assessment and follow-up compared with participants with chronic pain (P = .050). Those with high catastrophizing presented with lower levels of function at initial assessment (66.8%) and follow-up (72.1%) compared with those with low catastrophizing (80.8% and 87.0%, respectively).

Similar to other studies in other professions, the function of patients with chronic pain does not improve as much compared with patients recovering from acute pain in an Athletic Therapy setting. It is important to measure patient-reported outcomes to evaluate patient rehabilitation progress. Rehabilitating patients with chronic pain is a challenge, and pain catastrophizing should be evaluated at the initial assessment since catastrophizing is associated with worse function.