Data set for systematic review and meta analysis entitled: The Effect of Chronic Pain on Memory: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Exploring the Impact of Nociceptive, Neuropathic and Nociplastic Pain

Chronic pain is becoming increasingly prevalent in modern society. Much research to date has focussed on the physical symptoms of pain associated with various conditions, yet living with chronic pain is also known to impact an individual’s quality of life, social relationships and cognition. Among cognition, memory is particularly vulnerable to outside factors, yet our understanding of the impact of pain on memory is inconclusive. This systematic review and meta-analysis examined the association between chronic pain type and memory performance. Chronic pain samples were classified as nociceptive, neuropathic or nociplastic and were compared to healthy controls. Studies were sourced from Embase, Web of Science, MEDLINE, PubMed, PsycINFO, Scopus and CINAHL databases between December 2023 and July 2024. A total of 15 studies with 1865 participants were included (106 who experienced chronic nociceptive pain, 315 who experienced chronic neuropathic pain, 589 who experienced chronic nociplastic pain and 855 healthy controls). The studies were assessed for risk of bias and all studies included were considered to be good or strong. Results indicated that individuals with nociceptive and nociplastic pain had impaired memory performance (for short-term, working and long-term memory) compared to healthy controls. The same was not true for individuals with neuropathic pain. This indicates that the type of pain one experiences impacts memory performance. This has profound implications both clinically and with regard to research and offers a new lens for how we can consider chronic pain when trying to understand the impact on cognition.

慢性疼痛（Chronic pain）在现代社会中的患病率正日益攀升。迄今为止，多数相关研究均聚焦于各类疾病伴随的疼痛躯体症状，但众所周知，罹患慢性疼痛本身也会对患者的生活质量、社会关系及认知功能造成不良影响。在各类认知功能中，记忆尤其易受外界因素影响，但目前学界对于疼痛对记忆的影响尚未达成共识。本项系统综述与元分析（meta-analysis）旨在探究不同类型慢性疼痛与记忆表现之间的关联。研究将慢性疼痛受试者分为伤害感受性疼痛（nociceptive）、神经病理性疼痛（neuropathic）及伤害感受异常性疼痛（nociplastic）三类，并与健康对照组进行对比。本次研究的文献检索范围涵盖2023年12月至2024年7月期间Embase、Web of Science、MEDLINE、PubMed、PsycINFO、Scopus及CINAHL七大数据库。最终纳入15项研究，共计1865名受试者：其中慢性伤害感受性疼痛患者106例、慢性神经病理性疼痛患者315例、慢性伤害感受异常性疼痛患者589例，健康对照855例。所有纳入研究均经过偏倚风险评估，且均被评定为高质量或强质量研究。研究结果显示，与健康对照组相比，伤害感受性疼痛及伤害感受异常性疼痛患者的记忆表现（包括短时记忆、工作记忆与长时记忆）均存在显著受损；而神经病理性疼痛患者则未出现此类记忆损伤。这一结果表明，患者所罹患的疼痛类型会对其记忆表现产生显著影响。该研究在临床实践与科研领域均具有深远意义，同时也为我们在探究慢性疼痛对认知功能的影响时提供了全新的审视视角。