Pain medicine : the official journal of the American Academy of Pain Medicine
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Advanced age is associated with a higher risk of both pain and dementia, with many studies finding that dementia often heightens sensitivity to pain. Vascular dementia (VaD) is the second most common type of dementia. Only a few observational or retrospective studies have examined pain responsiveness in VaD, suggesting that it could increase pain unpleasantness (i.e., pain affect). This study compared thermal pain psychophysics between a cohort of patients with VaD and healthy control (HC) subjects. ⋯ These results are consistent with prior observational findings suggesting that VaD could make patients more susceptible to pain, particularly its affective component.