Papers of the Week

Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) is an important treatment modality used to treat chronic neuropathic pain. However, reported success rates of 26%-70% entail an increased focus on patient selection. An area of core interest is psychological evaluation, often using scales such as the Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS). The aim of this study was to assess the relation between baseline PCS scores obtained before implantation and SCS outcomes defined as (1) Rating on Patients' Global Impression of Change scale (PGIC), (2) Pain relief on the Numeric Rating Scale (NRS), (3) Cessation of pain medication, and (4) Risk of permanent explantation.