Pain Catastrophizing and Features of Somatic Symptom Disorder among Chronic Pain Patients: Moderating Role of Religious Coping

The ojective of the study was to measure the moderating role of religious coping between pain catastrophizing and somatic symptom disorder features among chronic pain patients. Cross sectional study design was used to measure the moderating role of religious coping between pain catastrophizing and symptoms of somatic symptom disorder. By using the purposive sampling technique 150 chronic pain patients who were attending the Physiotherapy Outpatient Department of Aziz Bhatti Shaheed Teaching Hospital, Gujrat were selected. Participants completed the Pain Catastrophizing Scale, Brief Religious Coping Scale, and the SCL 90 somatization subscale. Correlation and hierarchical regression analyses were performed using SPSS. Results suggest tha pain catastrophizing was positively associated with somatic symptom severity. Positive religious coping significantly moderated this relationship by weakening the association between catastrophizing and somatic symptoms. Negative religious coping showed positive correlations with both variables. The research concluded that pain catastrophizing is a key risk factor for somatic symptom distress, while positive religious coping functions protecting against such distress. The results highlight the significance of culturally relevant coping processes in chronic pain management.