2.3.4. Psychological Assessments

The Coping Strategies Questionnaire-Catastrophizing subscale (CSQ-CAT) queried catastrophic thinking related to pain by quantifying a person’s pain experience and analyzing thoughts and feelings pertaining to their pain experience[106]. Participants were asked to think about past experiences with pain and rate the thoughts they endured with item responses ranging from 0 “never” to 6 ”always”. Higher scores indicate greater catastrophizing while experiencing pain. The score range for the CSQ-CAT is from 0–36, with a mean of 6.8 for a healthy population[59].

The Tampa Scale of Kinesiophobia – 11 (TSK-11) assessed fear-related beliefs pertaining to physical movement and re-injury in individuals with chronic pain[55,135]. Participants were asked to rate each statement on a scale from 1 “strongly disagree” to 4 “strongly agree”. A higher score on the TSK-11 indicates a higher fear of pain or re-injury associated with movement. Scores for the TSK-11 range from no fear of movement (11–17), mild fear of movement (18–24), moderate fear of movement (25–31), severe fear of movement (32–38) to maximum fear of movement (39–44)[51].

The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) assessed states of depression and anxiety[144]. Participants were asked to rank symptoms of anxiety and depression on a scale ranging from 0 “most of the time” to 3 ”not at all,” with higher scores indicating greater levels of anxiety or depression. The HADS anxiety and depression scale ranges from normal (0–7) to mild (8–10) to a probable case (>11)[18].

The Patient Health Questionnaire – 2 (PHQ-2) was used to screen for depression and how frequently individuals experienced depressed mood over a two week period[70]. The 2-item survey asked how bothered individuals have been by various problems with scores ranging from 0 “not at all” to 3 “nearly every day”. The PHQ-2 total score ranges from 0–6, with a score greater than 3 suggesting further assessment of major depressive disorder[70].