Researchers from the University of Nottingham have found that chronic knee pain in osteoarthritis is associated with an increased risk of cognitive impairment, but not the cause. The results are published in: Pain Magazine.
The researchers conducted experiments on adult male mice. Some received injections of monoiodoacetate to the knee and the other portion served as control and received placebo (saline) injections. Monoiodoacetate is a toxic substance that, when injected into the knee, causes inflammation and pain similar to osteoarthritis. The experiment showed that knee pain did not cause cognitive impairment in animals.
Another study, done earlier at the University of Nottingham, confirmed that people with knee osteoarthritis do indeed have cognitive impairment associated with pain. As the authors of the new study suggest, cognitive impairment in osteoarthritis may be related to other factors: pain medications, advanced age, psychological and socio-economic factors.
previous work showedthat hormone replacement therapy in menopause is associated with an increased risk of dementia.