Patients with cognitive impairment can have increased pain processing

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-05/wkh-app052915.php

Public Release: 29-May-2015
Wolters Kluwer Health

People with dementia and other forms of cognitive impairment (CI) have altered responses to pain, with many conditions associated with increased pain sensitivity, concludes a research review in PAIN®, the official publication of the International Association for the Study of Pain. The journal is published by Wolters Kluwer.

The available evidence questions the previous notion that people with CI have reduced pain sensitivity to pain. Rather, "It appears that those with widespread brain atrophy or neural degeneration...all show increased pain responses and/or greater pain sensitivity," write Ruth Defrin, PhD, of University of Tel Aviv, Israel, and colleagues.

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