• Fotini Zachariades, Danijela Maras, Deborah Mervitz, Brenda Martelli, Audrey Prayal-Brown, Lamia Hayawi, Nick Barrowman, and Christine Lamontagne.
• Government of Canada, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
• Can J Anaesth. 2023 Nov 1; 70 (11): 175317641753-1764.

PurposePain catastrophizing (PC) is the tendency to magnify the threat value of pain sensations and is associated with greater postsurgical pain intensity, functional disability, and pain chronicity. Higher parental PC predicts higher chronic postsurgical pain in youth. Treating PC in caregivers and youth prior to surgery may improve recovery and surgical outcomes. We developed and evaluated a psychoeducational workshop addressing PC for presurgical youth and their parents/caregivers. We hypothesized that parent/caregiver and youth PC scores would decrease over time. We also explored preintervention levels of youth anxiety and depression as moderators of outcome.MethodsYouth (n = 43) and caregivers (n = 41) attended a virtual, group-based single-session intervention (SSI). Single-session intervention content addressed pain neuroscience, PC, and adaptive coping strategies for managing pain and PC drawn from cognitive-behavioural, acceptance and commitment, and dialectical behaviour therapy approaches. Participants completed questionnaires assessing PC at preintervention, postintervention, and two weeks postsurgery. Youth mood and anxiety were assessed at preintervention.ResultsCaregiver PC scores decreased from pre- to postintervention (P = 0.006), and this was maintained at postsurgery (P = 0.002). Youth PC scores decreased from preintervention to postsurgery, but only for those with higher preintervention anxiety (P = 0.01).ConclusionOur results provide proof-of-concept support for a virtual SSI targeting caregivers and youth PC during the perioperative period. The present findings highlight the possible need to screen presurgical candidates for symptoms of anxiety. Replication with larger and more diverse samples, and a more robust design are warranted.© 2023. Canadian Anesthesiologists' Society.

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