Pain may increase risk of dementia

Chronic pain may be linked to an increasing risk for dementia. Researchers interviewed 10,065 people over the age of 62 in 1998 and 2000, asking whether they suffered “persistent pain,” defined as being often troubled with moderate or severe pain. They then tracked their health through 2012.

After adjusting for many variables, they found that compared to those who reported no aches, people who reported persistent pain in both 1998 and 2000 had a 9% more rapid decline in memory performance. Moreover, the probability of dementia increased 7.7% faster in those with persistent pain compared with those without.

The study in JAMA Internal Medicine does not prove cause and effect. But chronic pain may divert attention from other mental activity, leading to poor memory, and some studies have found that allaying pain with opioids can lead to cognitive improvements.

Still, the lead author, Dr Elizabeth L Whitlock, an anesthesiologist at the University of California, San Francisco, acknowledged that treatment with opioids is problematic, and that, so far, there is no satisfactory solution to safely controlling chronic pain. “I’d encourage clinicians to be aware of the cognitive implications of a simple report of pain,” she said. “It’s a simple question to ask, and the answer can be used to identify a population at high risk of functional and cognitive problems.”