Morphometric Cortical Correlates of Pain Catastrophizing Behaviour in Patients with Chronic Painful Knee OA

Hamza Alshuft¹, ², Laura Condon¹, Jennifer Dixon¹, ², Robert Dineen¹, Dorothee P. Auer¹, ²

Pain is a complex subjective experience not only involving sensory component but also cognitive and emotional dimensions. People differ in their capability in coping with pain. Pain catastrophizing defined as an exaggerated negative mental set may mediate this capability as it has been consistently found to be predictive of pain outcome leading to more emotional distress and intensified pain experience. As a psychological predictor pain catastrophizing has been extensively investigated over the past years yet its mechanism is still poorly understood. Here we investigate the MRI-based morphological brain correlates of pain catastrophizing in a group of patients with painful osteoarthritis.