Effort to Examine Alzheimer's Impact on Pain Processing

A new multisite study funded by the National Institute on Aging will examine whether co-occurring Alzheimer’s disease and stage 4 breast or prostate cancer alters pain perception, potentially leading to undertreated cancer pain.

The five-year project, led by primary investigators Ronald Cowan, MD, PhD, professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and Todd Monroe, PhD, associate professor at The Ohio State University College of Nursing, will study thermal and pressure pain thresholds as well as central sensitization to pain in 264 people across three...