Chronic pain is linked to an advanced cognitive age pattern

In human participants, chronic pain is associated with performance-based cognitive impairments and patterns of advanced cognitive age, according to a meta-analysis and a cross-sectional study. Researchers first synthesized 67 studies covering 6,899 patients and controls, finding moderate cognitive difficulties across pain diagnoses and cognitive domains (g = -0.48, 95% CI -0.52 to -0.43, I2 = 82.03). These deficits scaled with pain severity and psychological symptoms. The authors then examined 37,139 chronic pain participants and controls in the UK Biobank using a predictive model of cognitive age. UK Biobank data replicated the cognitive deficits, though at a smaller magnitude (d = 0.04 to 0.30). Participants experiencing higher pain severity, defined as four or more pain sites, showed an advanced cognitive age pattern that the authors suggest may reflect stress-related impacts of persistent pain.