MEMORY COMPLAINTS IN CHRONIC PAIN

Objective: In clinical practice, patients with chronic pain frequently report problems with memory functioning. This issue, however, has rec eived little attention in the scientific literature. The present study was designed to investigate this common problem and to stimulate rese arch interest in this neglected and important area. Design: Self-repor ted memory problems were investigated in two groups of chronic pain pa tients-patients with pain from acceleration-deceleration automobile ac cidents (n = 56) and patients with pain from various work accidents (n = 27)-and two control groups involving medical/dental (n = 24) and ps ychotherapy patients (n = 20). Setting: Private practice, chronic pain , rehabilitation psychology services. Results: Our findings suggest th at memory complaints are higher in patients with chronic pain than in medical/dental or psychotherapy patients. No differences were found be tween chronic pain groups. On more general measures of memory complain t, differences between pain patients and controls were attributed to t he severity of patients' depression. On a questionnaire designed to be more specific to memory complaint in chronic pain patients, differenc es in memory complaint between pain patients and controls were found, even after the effects due to depression were statistically removed. A lthough pain patients often attribute their memory problems to codeine use and/or psychoactive medications, there was no support for this in the present study. Conclusions: Within the limitations of this study, these findings suggest that memory complaints may be related not only to depression but also to the presence of chronic pain. Further resea rch in this area is needed.