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BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article

Front. Pain Res.
Sec. Geriatric Pain
Volume 5 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpain.2024.1498283

Correlates of neurocognitive performance in older adults with chronic pain and negative emotions: Baseline data from the Problem Adaptation Therapy for Pain (PATH-Pain) randomized controlled trial

Provisionally accepted
Irina Mindlis Irina Mindlis *Lisa D Ravdin Lisa D Ravdin Cary Reid Cary Reid Dimitris Kiosses Dimitris Kiosses
  • Weill Cornell Medicine, Cornell University, New York, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Chronic pain is highly prevalent among older adults, is associated with cognitive deficits, and is commonly treated in primary care. We sought to document the extent of impairment across specific neurocognitive domains and its correlates among older adults with chronic pain in primary care.We analyzed baseline data from the Problem Adaptation Therapy for Pain trial, which examined a psychosocial intervention to improve emotion regulation in 100 adults ≥ 60 years with comorbid chronic pain and negative emotions, who did not have evidence of moderate-to-severe cognitive impairment. Questionnaires on comorbidities, depressive symptoms, pain intensity, and pain-related disability were administered along with the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS) and the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA).Multiple regression assessed the relationship between demographic and clinical characteristics with specific neurocognitive domains.Over half of participants (56%) had mild-to-moderate cognitive impairment (< 26 on the MoCA). Across domains, participants scored the lowest in visuospatial/constructional (M = 86.2; SD = 15.7), and 15-23% scored at least one standard deviation below the mean for immediate and delayed memory, visuospatial/constructional, and attention. In adjusted models, greater medical comorbidities were associated with poorer performance on the total RBANS, immediate memory, and attention.Cognitive deficits in older adults with chronic pain in primary care are substantial, with varying levels of deficits by neurocognitive domain. Future research should examine synergistic effects of chronic pain and comorbidities on cognition, and the impact of cognitive deficits on older adults' ability to engage in pain interventions and self-management behaviors.

    Keywords: Cognition, Chronic Pain, depressive symptoms, Negative emotions, Mild Cognitive Impairment, older adults

    Received: 18 Sep 2024; Accepted: 03 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Mindlis, Ravdin, Reid and Kiosses. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Irina Mindlis, Weill Cornell Medicine, Cornell University, New York, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.