Associations between the hierarchical taxonomy of psychopathology (HiTOP) spectra and pain indicators among primary care patients

The present study aimed to clarify the associations between self-reported indicators of pain and the Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP) spectra. Currently, head pain complaints, gastrointestinal discomfort, somatization, cognitive concerns, and malaise fall under the somatoform spectrum, which has been described as the most "tentative" HiTOP dimension, and is officially designated as “provisional,” due to 1) insufficient literature on somatoform in relation to other HiTOP spectra (Watson et al., 2022), and 2) its shared variance with internalizing, calling into question whether it should be represented as a lower-order factor of internalizing or remain as an independent spectrum (Woodling et al., 2022). To assess which HiTOP spectra self-reported pain is associated with, we administered the MMPI-2-RF to 110 veterans who endorsed non-specific pain (pain without a clear cause) during a primary care visit. Valid MMPI-2-RF profiles were then prorated to obtain MMPI-3 scores. HiTOP spectra were indexed using the PSY-5 scales plus the Somatic Complaints (RC1) scale, as well the Modified Somatic Preoccupations Questionnaire (MSPQ) — with and without pain items — for comparison. Hierarchical regression analyses suggest somatoform best explains the variance observed across three pain measures (pain severity, pain disability, and pain interference). Additionally, zero-order correlations revealed internalizing was significantly associated with all iterations of the somatoform measures employed; however, internalizing was not significantly correlated with any of the pain measures – suggesting that while somatoform and internalizing are significantly associated, somatoform predicts distinct phenomena that internalizing does not capture. These results provide insight into how non-specific pain relates to the HiTOP spectra and support the importance of the somatoform spectrum. In our sample, somatoform predicted pain above and beyond all other spectra, demonstrating its unique capacity to predict pain experiences.

Author dc:creator

• Asis, Hannah

• assessment
• HiTOP
• personality
• somatoform

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/11299/278727

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:conservancy.umn.edu:11299/278727