This scale measures catastrophic thoughts in times of pain, in other words, it looks at subjects’ negative thoughts towards the experience of pain. With the PCS, patients use their previous experiences with pain as a reference and indicate the degree to which they experience certain thoughts and feelings. The PCS comprises 13 items on a five-point Likert-type scale from 0 (never) to 4 (always), which are distributed into three subscales: rumination (making reference to a state or sensation of constant worry and the inability to stop thoughts relating to pain), helplessness (this manifests when hope has been lost for obtaining something, or because of the disappearance or lack of some physical and/or psychological aspect that is harmful for the health) and magnification (making reference to the exaggeration of the unpleasantness of painful situations and the expectation of negative consequences). The highest scores indicate high levels of catastrophism.

References:

Miró, J., Nieto, R., & Huguet, A. (2008). The Catalan version of the Pain Catastrophizing Scale: a useful instrument to assess catastrophic thinking in whiplash patients. The journal of pain: official journal of the American Pain Society, 5, 397–406.

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