Papers of the Week

Chronic pain, cognitive deficits, and pain-related disability are inter-related. The prevalence of chronic pain and undiagnosed cognitive difficulties in middle age and older adults is increasing. Of the cognitive systems, executive function and episodic memory are most relevant to chronic pain. We examined the hypothesis that cognitive screening composite scores for executive function and memory would negatively associate with pain intensity and pain disability in a group of middle aged and older adults with knee pain, with or at risk for osteoarthritis.