• Christina Jensen-Dahm, Caspar Skau Madsen, Gunhild Waldemar, Martin Ballegaard, Anne-Mette Hejl, Birger Johnsen, and Troels Staehelin Jensen.
• *Danish Dementia Research Centre, Department of Neurology, Rigshospitalet, University of Copenhagen, Denmark; christina.jensen-dahm@regionh.dk.
• Pain Med. 2016 Apr 1; 17 (4): 675-84.

ObjectiveClinical studies have found that patients with Alzheimer's disease report pain of less intensity and with a lower affective response, which has been thought to be due to altered pain processing. The authors wished to examine the cerebral processing of non-painful and painful stimuli using somatosensory evoked potentials and contact heat evoked potentials in patients with Alzheimer's disease and in healthy elderly controls.DesignCase-control studySetting And SubjectsTwenty outpatients with mild-moderate Alzheimer's disease and in 17 age- and gender-matched healthy controls were includedMethodContact heat evoked potentials and somatosensory evoked potentials were recorded in all subjects. Furthermore, warmth detection threshold and heat pain threshold were assessed. Patients and controls also rated quality and intensity of the stimuli.ResultsThe authors found no difference on contact heat evoked potential amplitude (P = 0.59) or latency of N2 or P2 wave (P = 0.62 and P = 0.75, respectively) between patients and controls. In addition, there was no difference in regard to pain intensity scores or pain quality. The patients and controls had similar warmth detection threshold and heat pain threshold. Somatosensory evoked potentials, amplitude, and latency were within normal range and similar for the two groups.ConclusionsThe findings suggest that the processing of non-painful and painful stimuli is preserved in patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease.© 2015 American Academy of Pain Medicine. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

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