Chronic knee pain may not be responsible for cognitive impairment in patients with osteoarthritis, according to a paper published by Gonçalves et al in The Journal of Pain. Researchers examined the effects of osteoarthritis-like knee pain in a rat model to determine whether pain alone was capable of causing cognitive impairments—including attention, memory, and behavioral flexibility issues. After assigning the rats to receive either a unilateral knee injection of 3 mg/50 µL of mono-iodoacetate or saline as a control, the researchers discovered that those that received the mono-iodoacetate injections did not indicate any memory or behavioral flexibility impairments. They deduced that osteoarthritis-like knee pain did not alter hippocampal function or cognitive performance—suggesting that modifiable factors, such as advanced age, pain medication, and socioeconomic status, may play a larger role in impairing cognitive function than chronic knee pain in patients with osteoarthritis.
July 14, 2023