Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS)

Summary

What it measures:

The Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS) assesses the extent of catastrophic thinking due to low back pain according to 3 components: rumination, magnification, and helplessness.

It is a 13-item scale, with a total range of 0 to 52. Higher scores are associated with higher amounts of pain catastrophizing.

The PCS was supported by the Low Back Pain Clinical Practice Guideline authored by APTA’s Orthopaedic Section (Delitto, et al, 2012).

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Test & Measure

Pain Pressure Threshold (PPT)

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