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10th Anniversary Articles
Pain and Aging: The Emergence of a New Subfield of Pain Research
The pain and aging subfield has grown dramatically, including a 6-fold increase in publications over the last 2 decades. This subfield is based on the assumption that pain in older and younger adults differs in clinically and theoretically significant ways. If this were not the case, data from younger groups could be generalized to older persons, and the subfield would not be needed. This article considers the evidence for this assumption. Possible interpretations of the discrepant findings of age-related increases, decreases and stability in pain, including methodological limitations, challenges of gerontological research, and the possibility of nonuniform age-related variation, are discussed.
