Chronic pain, which activates microglia and thus inflammation in the brain, could lead to cognitive decline and dementia, according to a recent study.
“Our findings suggest that chronic pain is biologically linked to detrimental brain changes leading to degeneration, and potentially dementia,” study researcher Robert Perneczky, MD, the chair in Translational Dementia Research at the Sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience, in Sheffield, England, told Pain Medicine News.