ArticleBritish journal of pain2016
Magnitude and variability of effect sizes for the associations between chronic pain and cognitive test performances: a meta-analysis.
Article in British journal of pain, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed.
- Factors Related to Pain and Disability Outcomes After an Internet-Delivered or Physiotherapist-Led Exercise Program for Individuals With Chronic Whiplash Symptoms: Secondary Analysis of a Randomized Controlled Study.JMIR human factors · 2025Trial
- Randomized Trial of Chronic Pain Self-Management Program in the Community or Clinic for Low-Income Primary Care Patients.Journal of general internal medicine · 2018Trial
- Differential Predictive Capabilities of Cognitive Performance on Psychological Pain Variables in Chronic Low Back Pain.Pain research & management · 2026Article
- Neurocognitive Impairment and HIV Treatment Engagement in Men Who Have Sex With Men Living With HIV Who Report Chronic Pain and Substance Use.AIDS research and treatment · 2025Article
- Investigating self-report and neuropsychological assessments of cognitive flexibility in people with and without persistent pain: An online, cross-sectional, observational study.British journal of pain · 2024Article
- 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.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Article
- The extent of the neurocognitive impairment in elderly survivors of war suffering from PTSD: meta-analysis and literature review.AIMS neuroscience · 2021Review
- Comorbid Pain and Cognitive Impairment in a Nationally Representative Adult Population: Prevalence and Associations With Health Status, Health Care Utilization, and Satisfaction With Care.The Clinical journal of pain · 2020Article
- Short-term incubation of gabapentin or pregabalin does not affect chemically induced injury in neuronal cell models in vitro.Journal of pain research · 2018Article
- Neuropsychological Symptoms and Functional Capacity in Older Adults with Chronic Pain.Gerontology & geriatric medicineArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
OBJECTIVES AND
methodsA systematic review and meta-analysis were performed to estimate the size and variability of the association between chronic pain (CP) and poorer cognitive test performances as a function of individual tests, pain sub-types, and study sources on 22 studies having (1) a control group, (2) reported means and standard deviations (SDs) and (3) tests studied at least 3 times.
resultsCP patients performed significantly poorer with small to moderate effects (d = -.31 to -.57) on Digit Span Backward; STROOP Word; Color and Color-Word; Digit Symbol; Trail Making A and B; Rey Auditory Learning Immediate and Delayed Recall and Recognition. For these 10 measures, single effects (no interaction) were supported (I(2) = 0%-8%) and Random and Fixed models yielded similar results. No group differences were found for Corsi Blocks Forward or Wisconsin Cart Sorting Test Categories Achieved, or Perseveration. Effects for the Rey Complex Figure Immediate and Delayed Recall were significant, but effect size was inconclusive, given moderate to high heterogeneity and lack of consistency between Random and Fixed models. For the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test, there was a homogeneous (I(2) = 0%) and significantly lower performance in fibromyalgia (d = -.47), but no effect in diagnostically undifferentiated pain samples, and wide variability across studies of whiplash (d = -.15 to -1.04, I(2) = 60%).
conclusionThe magnitude and consistency of the CP - cognition effect depended on the test, pain subgroup and study source. SUMMARY POINTS: Among tests showing a chronic pain (CP) - cognition effect, the magnitude of this association was consistently small to moderate across tests.Effect size estimation was inconclusive for Digit Span Forwards, the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test and the Rey Complex Figure Test.Variance was too heterogeneous for testing cognitive domain specificity of the CP - cognition effect.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.