Ann Horgas - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Ann Horgas

Research paper thumbnail of Pain Management in Older Adults

Clinical Gerontologist, 2001

Research paper thumbnail of Assessing Pain in Older Adults

Home healthcare now, May 1, 2023

Research paper thumbnail of Behavioural management of physical and psychological symptoms in palliative care

Research paper thumbnail of Do Associations Between Vascular Risk and Mild Cognitive Impairment Vary by Race?

Journal of Aging and Health, Jan 26, 2021

Objectives:Given the differences in prevalence of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in Black older ... more Objectives:Given the differences in prevalence of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in Black older adults compared to Whites, this study aimed to examine whether overall vascular risk factor (VRF) burden and individual VRF associations with amnestic (aMCI) and non-amnestic (naMCI) MCI risk varied by race.Methods:Participants included 2755 older adults without dementia from the ACTIVE trial at baseline. Comprehensive neuropsychological criteria were used to classify cognitively normal, aMCI, and naMCI. VRFs were defined based on subjective report and medication data. Multinomial logistic regression was run predicting MCI subtype.Results:Greater VRF burden, high cholesterol, and obesity evinced greater odds of naMCI in Black elders compared to Whites. Across participants, diabetes and hypertension were associated with increased odds of aMCI and naMCI, respectively.Discussion:Results may reflect a compound of disadvantage relating to racism/marginalization. Continued efforts toward examining underlying mechanisms and potential disparities contributing to these findings are warranted.

Research paper thumbnail of Measuring behavioral and mood disruptions in nursing home residents using the Minimum Data Set

PubMed, Mar 20, 2002

The Minimum Data Set (MDS) is a standardized assessment tool designed to provide a comprehensive ... more The Minimum Data Set (MDS) is a standardized assessment tool designed to provide a comprehensive biopsychosocial assessment of medical, behavioral, and cognitive status of nursing home residents. This pilot study examined the relationships of three MDS subscales--cognition, depressive symptoms, and behavioral disruptions--to other measures of the same domains (e.g., diagnosed dementia and depression and caregiver ratings on the Revised Memory and Behavior Problems Checklist [RMBPC]). The sample consisted of 135 nursing home residents with a mean age of 84 years. Based on the MDS, there was a high prevalence of cognition-related behaviors but a low prevalence of disruptive and depressed behaviors. The prevalence rates were substantially different according to the RMBPC. In addition, most of the MDS subscales failed to differentiate between residents with and without diagnosed dementia and depression, whereas caregiver ratings on the RMBPC did. The MDS and RMBPC subscales were modestly related but only in residents without dementia. These findings raise questions about the validity of the MDS in measuring nursing home residents' behavior, especially depressive and disruptive behaviors. Thus, caution should be employed in using the MDS as a sole outcome measure for these behaviors, and the use of multiple measures is suggested.

Research paper thumbnail of Pain Management in Older Adults

Nursing Clinics of North America, Dec 1, 2017

Research paper thumbnail of Preparing Nurses to Provide Primary Palliative Care: Outcomes of an Innovative Experiential Learning Project

Sigma's 30th International Nursing Research Congress, Jul 10, 2019

Research paper thumbnail of Pain Assessment in Older Adults

Nursing Clinics of North America, Sep 1, 2017

Published by Cinahl Information Systems. Copyright©2010, Cinahl Information Systems. All rights r... more Published by Cinahl Information Systems. Copyright©2010, Cinahl Information Systems. All rights reserved. No part of this may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Cinahl Information Systems accepts no liability for advice or information given herein or errors/omissions in the text. It is merely intended as a general informational overview of the subject for the healthcare professional.

Research paper thumbnail of An Experiential Learning Approach to Primary Palliative Care Nursing Education

Journal of Hospice & Palliative Nursing, Dec 1, 2017

The need for palliative care is growing along with a rapidly aging population. To meet this need,... more The need for palliative care is growing along with a rapidly aging population. To meet this need, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing developed palliative care competencies that all nurses should achieve before graduation. Many of these competencies rely on direct experience in caring for patients facing serious illness, leading to an increased emphasis on experiential learning in nursing curricula. Experiential learning is the process of creating knowledge through transformative experiences outside the traditional classroom setting. The Comfort Shawl Project is a service learning project that provides senior nursing students with a yearlong immersion in palliative care. Experiential learning activities include attending the interdisciplinary palliative care team meeting, gifting handcrafted shawls to patients, writing reflections, participating in extracurricular events, and sharing the impact of the project through written papers and presentations. The project has been successful in helping nursing students achieve palliative care competencies, including communicating effectively and compassionately with patients and families and recognizing one’s own beliefs about serious illness and death. This project addresses the need to achieve primary palliative care competencies for nursing students. Clinical experiences in palliative care are vital to supplementing didactic learning, and this project could be replicated in a variety of academic settings.

Research paper thumbnail of Head and Neck Cancer: Technology Feasibility of a Speech Generating Device During the Post-Operative Period

Research paper thumbnail of A Call to the CMS: Mandate Adequate Professional Nurse Staffing in Nursing Homes

AJN, American Journal of Nursing, 2021

Editor's note: This article is by 22 nursing gerontology experts who are all advocates of nur... more Editor's note: This article is by 22 nursing gerontology experts who are all advocates of nursing home reform. They are listed at the end of this article.

Research paper thumbnail of Experiential Palliative Care Immersion: Student Nurse’s Narratives Reflect Care Competencies

Western Journal of Nursing Research, 2019

Many nurses report a lack of confidence providing care for patients facing a life-threatening ill... more Many nurses report a lack of confidence providing care for patients facing a life-threatening illness. Palliative care leaders have devised primary palliative nursing care competencies (CARES [Competencies And Recommendations for Educating undergraduate nursing Students]) that all students should achieve. In this study, nursing students participated in an innovative palliative care immersion experience, the Comfort Shawl Project. We performed a reliable content analysis of their narrative reflections. The goal was to evaluate whether reflections on their interactions with patients/families were consistent with CARES competencies. Nine female students wrote reflections after gifting each of the 234 comfort shawls to patients. Four CARES-related categories were analyzed: Individual Values and Diversity, Compassionate Communication, Fostering Quality of Life, and Self-Insight and Emotion. Reflections were highly representative (41%) of recognizing Individual Values and Diversity, repre...

Research paper thumbnail of Nursing Students' Reactions to an Educational Experiential Immersion in Palliative Care

Journal of Nursing Education, 2018

Background: The nursing role includes providing compassionate care at the end of life, yet many n... more Background: The nursing role includes providing compassionate care at the end of life, yet many nurses feel unprepared to provide such care. We describe nursing students' reactions during participation in an experiential immersion in palliative care in which they interacted with seriously ill patients through gifting handmade shawls. Method: After gifting, students wrote three words that best described the feeling in the room. Responses were content-analyzed to assess the frequency of specific concepts produced in the Three Words task. Gifting Reflection narratives were used to characterize the content–analysis categories. Results: Nursing students' most common responses were reflected in the categories Comfort and Kindness, and Thankfulness and Appreciation. Students also reported Sorrow and Need, but positive themes of Happiness and Delight, and Calm and Reflective were equally as prevalent. Conclusion: Experiential learning that focuses on psychosocial learning can result...

Research paper thumbnail of Assessing pain in older adults with dementia.(try this: Best Practices in Nursing Care to Older Adults)(Report)

Medsurg Nursing, May 1, 2010

Research paper thumbnail of The Relationship of Antipsychotic Drug Use, Resident Behavior, and Diagnoses Among Nursing Home Residents

Journal of Aging and Health, 1992

Nursing homes have been criticized for frequent use and possible misuse of psycho-active agents. ... more Nursing homes have been criticized for frequent use and possible misuse of psycho-active agents. These issues are of clinical concern and policy relevance, especially since the passage of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (OBRA) of 1987. Using a sample of 419 residents, the authors examined the relationships among antipsychotic drug (AP) use, behavior, and mental health diagnoses. Only 23.2% of the residents were administered APs on a routine and/or as-needed basis. Based on the Multidimensional Observation Scale for Elderly Subjects (MOSES) ratings, AP users were more irritable, disoriented, and withdrawn than were nonusers. Also, AP users demonstrated agitated behaviors more frequently. Notably, AP users and nonusers differed significantly in terms of documented mental health diagnoses. Among AP users, 70.1% had documented dementia, 8.3% were psychotic or had other psychiatric disorders, and 21.6% had no mental health diagnoses. In contrast, the majority of nonusers had no mental health disorders. Logistic regression revealed that diagnostic factors, frequency of agitation, level of withdrawal, and marital status were significant predictors of AP use

Research paper thumbnail of Activity and Health-Related Quality of Life in Continuing Care Retirement Communities

Research on Aging, 2002

This study examines the relationships between health-related quality of life and activity engagem... more This study examines the relationships between health-related quality of life and activity engagement among residents in two continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs). Prior research indicates that involvement in activity is an important correlate of healthy aging among other community-dwelling elders, and this finding is expected to hold in CCRCs. Time spent engaged in discretionary activities, specifically active, passive, and outside retirement community activities are expected to be associated with better health-related quality of life across multiple dimensions. Data were collected from 167 independent living and assisted living residents in two CCRCs in a large Midwestern metropolitan area. Activity engagement was measured via a self-report questionnaire. Health-related quality of life was measured using the Medical Outcomes Study Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36), which generates eight health subscales (e.g., physical functioning, social functioning, pain). Based on ordina...

Research paper thumbnail of (222) Pain and disruptive behaviors in nursing home residents with dementia: analysis of national MDS 3.0

The Journal of Pain, 2014

Research paper thumbnail of Linking depressive symptoms and functional disability in late life

Aging & Mental Health, 2003

We hypothesized that the relationship of depressive symptoms to functional disability might be me... more We hypothesized that the relationship of depressive symptoms to functional disability might be mediated by cognitive processes such as memory and problem-solving. The study sample consisted of 147 community-dwelling older adults (mean age = 74.0 years, SD = 5.9). In regression models that included terms for age, gender, and years of education, depressive symptoms were significantly inversely associated with two performance-based measures of functioning: everyday problems test (beta = -0.15, p = 0.04) and observed tasks of daily living (beta = -0.14, p = 0.02). When memory and problem-solving ability were added to the model, the relationship of depressive symptoms with function was attenuated. A structural equation model based on our conceptual framework revealed that both memory and problem-solving abilities were important mediators in the relationship of depressive symptoms and functional disability. The results suggest that intervention studies intended to limit functional disability secondary to depression among older adults may need to consider the effect of depression on cognition.

Research paper thumbnail of Pain Management for Older Adults Across the Cognitive Trajectory

Current Geriatrics Reports

Research paper thumbnail of Parkinson’s Disease Is Associated With Enhanced Pain-Related Disability And The Selective Loss Of Gray Matter In Subcortical Regions Of The Brain Related To Pain Processing (P6.079)

Neurology, Apr 8, 2014

OBJECTIVE: We tested the hypothesis that patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) experience greate... more OBJECTIVE: We tested the hypothesis that patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) experience greater levels of pain-related disability as a result of a disorder of pain modulation specifically related to the pathophysiology of PD. BACKGROUND: Pain in PD has been attributed to the musculoskeletal complications of the movement disorder. Recent attention has also focused on the likely presence of a disturbance of central pain processing, which may be evident from both pharmacologic interventions as well as with deep brain stimulation. Lacking definition are: 1) the functional consequences of this central disorder of pain processing, and 2) its neurological mechanisms. DESIGN/METHODS: From a federally funded investigation studying the neuroanatomical contribution to cognitive profiles of individuals with non-demented idiopathic Parkinson’s disease (PD; n=39; UPDRS-III =17.78(10.87); age=67.72(5.42)) plus non-PD healthy demographically matched peers (n=36; UPDRS-III=2.78(3.49); age=68.19(4.36)), we used the Brief Pain Inventory-Short Form (Cleeland, 1991) to examine hypotheses regarding group differences in pain intensity versus pain disability and associated neuroanatomical contributions. RESULTS: PD reported significantly higher levels of pain-related disability (PD=11.69 ±12.68); non-PD=4.42±9.32; p=.006) despite similar levels of pain intensity. Only for PD, pain ratings were negatively associated with thalamic (interference = r =-.51, p=.001; intensity r= -.36, p=.01;) and amygdala (interference=-.35, p=.02; intensity r= -.31; p=.03) volumes after controlling for total intracranial volume. There were no associations with loss of gray matter in other cortical or subcortical structures such as the caudate, globus pallidus, or hippocampus. Pain ratings were not associated with motor severity, but did increase with years of PD. CONCLUSIONS: Data show evidence for a central disorder of pain regulation in PD whose mechanisms may be distinct from the specific pathophysiology of the movement disorder. Study Supported by: NINDS K23NS060660 (CP); 1R01NS082386 (CP) Disclosure: Dr. Ahn has received personal compensation for activities with CoLucid Pharmaceuticals as a consultant. Dr. Tanner has nothing to disclose. Dr. Horgas has nothing to disclose. Dr. Okun has received royalty payments from Demos, Humana, Amazon and Cambridge. Dr. Okun has received research support from the Michael J. Fox Foundation, the National Parkinson Foundation, the Parkinson Alliance, the Smallwood Foundation, the Tourette Syndrome Association, the Bachmann-Strauss Foundation, and the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Price has nothing to disclose.

Research paper thumbnail of Pain Management in Older Adults

Clinical Gerontologist, 2001

Research paper thumbnail of Assessing Pain in Older Adults

Home healthcare now, May 1, 2023

Research paper thumbnail of Behavioural management of physical and psychological symptoms in palliative care

Research paper thumbnail of Do Associations Between Vascular Risk and Mild Cognitive Impairment Vary by Race?

Journal of Aging and Health, Jan 26, 2021

Objectives:Given the differences in prevalence of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in Black older ... more Objectives:Given the differences in prevalence of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in Black older adults compared to Whites, this study aimed to examine whether overall vascular risk factor (VRF) burden and individual VRF associations with amnestic (aMCI) and non-amnestic (naMCI) MCI risk varied by race.Methods:Participants included 2755 older adults without dementia from the ACTIVE trial at baseline. Comprehensive neuropsychological criteria were used to classify cognitively normal, aMCI, and naMCI. VRFs were defined based on subjective report and medication data. Multinomial logistic regression was run predicting MCI subtype.Results:Greater VRF burden, high cholesterol, and obesity evinced greater odds of naMCI in Black elders compared to Whites. Across participants, diabetes and hypertension were associated with increased odds of aMCI and naMCI, respectively.Discussion:Results may reflect a compound of disadvantage relating to racism/marginalization. Continued efforts toward examining underlying mechanisms and potential disparities contributing to these findings are warranted.

Research paper thumbnail of Measuring behavioral and mood disruptions in nursing home residents using the Minimum Data Set

PubMed, Mar 20, 2002

The Minimum Data Set (MDS) is a standardized assessment tool designed to provide a comprehensive ... more The Minimum Data Set (MDS) is a standardized assessment tool designed to provide a comprehensive biopsychosocial assessment of medical, behavioral, and cognitive status of nursing home residents. This pilot study examined the relationships of three MDS subscales--cognition, depressive symptoms, and behavioral disruptions--to other measures of the same domains (e.g., diagnosed dementia and depression and caregiver ratings on the Revised Memory and Behavior Problems Checklist [RMBPC]). The sample consisted of 135 nursing home residents with a mean age of 84 years. Based on the MDS, there was a high prevalence of cognition-related behaviors but a low prevalence of disruptive and depressed behaviors. The prevalence rates were substantially different according to the RMBPC. In addition, most of the MDS subscales failed to differentiate between residents with and without diagnosed dementia and depression, whereas caregiver ratings on the RMBPC did. The MDS and RMBPC subscales were modestly related but only in residents without dementia. These findings raise questions about the validity of the MDS in measuring nursing home residents' behavior, especially depressive and disruptive behaviors. Thus, caution should be employed in using the MDS as a sole outcome measure for these behaviors, and the use of multiple measures is suggested.

Research paper thumbnail of Pain Management in Older Adults

Nursing Clinics of North America, Dec 1, 2017

Research paper thumbnail of Preparing Nurses to Provide Primary Palliative Care: Outcomes of an Innovative Experiential Learning Project

Sigma's 30th International Nursing Research Congress, Jul 10, 2019

Research paper thumbnail of Pain Assessment in Older Adults

Nursing Clinics of North America, Sep 1, 2017

Published by Cinahl Information Systems. Copyright©2010, Cinahl Information Systems. All rights r... more Published by Cinahl Information Systems. Copyright©2010, Cinahl Information Systems. All rights reserved. No part of this may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Cinahl Information Systems accepts no liability for advice or information given herein or errors/omissions in the text. It is merely intended as a general informational overview of the subject for the healthcare professional.

Research paper thumbnail of An Experiential Learning Approach to Primary Palliative Care Nursing Education

Journal of Hospice & Palliative Nursing, Dec 1, 2017

The need for palliative care is growing along with a rapidly aging population. To meet this need,... more The need for palliative care is growing along with a rapidly aging population. To meet this need, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing developed palliative care competencies that all nurses should achieve before graduation. Many of these competencies rely on direct experience in caring for patients facing serious illness, leading to an increased emphasis on experiential learning in nursing curricula. Experiential learning is the process of creating knowledge through transformative experiences outside the traditional classroom setting. The Comfort Shawl Project is a service learning project that provides senior nursing students with a yearlong immersion in palliative care. Experiential learning activities include attending the interdisciplinary palliative care team meeting, gifting handcrafted shawls to patients, writing reflections, participating in extracurricular events, and sharing the impact of the project through written papers and presentations. The project has been successful in helping nursing students achieve palliative care competencies, including communicating effectively and compassionately with patients and families and recognizing one’s own beliefs about serious illness and death. This project addresses the need to achieve primary palliative care competencies for nursing students. Clinical experiences in palliative care are vital to supplementing didactic learning, and this project could be replicated in a variety of academic settings.

Research paper thumbnail of Head and Neck Cancer: Technology Feasibility of a Speech Generating Device During the Post-Operative Period

Research paper thumbnail of A Call to the CMS: Mandate Adequate Professional Nurse Staffing in Nursing Homes

AJN, American Journal of Nursing, 2021

Editor's note: This article is by 22 nursing gerontology experts who are all advocates of nur... more Editor's note: This article is by 22 nursing gerontology experts who are all advocates of nursing home reform. They are listed at the end of this article.

Research paper thumbnail of Experiential Palliative Care Immersion: Student Nurse’s Narratives Reflect Care Competencies

Western Journal of Nursing Research, 2019

Many nurses report a lack of confidence providing care for patients facing a life-threatening ill... more Many nurses report a lack of confidence providing care for patients facing a life-threatening illness. Palliative care leaders have devised primary palliative nursing care competencies (CARES [Competencies And Recommendations for Educating undergraduate nursing Students]) that all students should achieve. In this study, nursing students participated in an innovative palliative care immersion experience, the Comfort Shawl Project. We performed a reliable content analysis of their narrative reflections. The goal was to evaluate whether reflections on their interactions with patients/families were consistent with CARES competencies. Nine female students wrote reflections after gifting each of the 234 comfort shawls to patients. Four CARES-related categories were analyzed: Individual Values and Diversity, Compassionate Communication, Fostering Quality of Life, and Self-Insight and Emotion. Reflections were highly representative (41%) of recognizing Individual Values and Diversity, repre...

Research paper thumbnail of Nursing Students' Reactions to an Educational Experiential Immersion in Palliative Care

Journal of Nursing Education, 2018

Background: The nursing role includes providing compassionate care at the end of life, yet many n... more Background: The nursing role includes providing compassionate care at the end of life, yet many nurses feel unprepared to provide such care. We describe nursing students' reactions during participation in an experiential immersion in palliative care in which they interacted with seriously ill patients through gifting handmade shawls. Method: After gifting, students wrote three words that best described the feeling in the room. Responses were content-analyzed to assess the frequency of specific concepts produced in the Three Words task. Gifting Reflection narratives were used to characterize the content–analysis categories. Results: Nursing students' most common responses were reflected in the categories Comfort and Kindness, and Thankfulness and Appreciation. Students also reported Sorrow and Need, but positive themes of Happiness and Delight, and Calm and Reflective were equally as prevalent. Conclusion: Experiential learning that focuses on psychosocial learning can result...

Research paper thumbnail of Assessing pain in older adults with dementia.(try this: Best Practices in Nursing Care to Older Adults)(Report)

Medsurg Nursing, May 1, 2010

Research paper thumbnail of The Relationship of Antipsychotic Drug Use, Resident Behavior, and Diagnoses Among Nursing Home Residents

Journal of Aging and Health, 1992

Nursing homes have been criticized for frequent use and possible misuse of psycho-active agents. ... more Nursing homes have been criticized for frequent use and possible misuse of psycho-active agents. These issues are of clinical concern and policy relevance, especially since the passage of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (OBRA) of 1987. Using a sample of 419 residents, the authors examined the relationships among antipsychotic drug (AP) use, behavior, and mental health diagnoses. Only 23.2% of the residents were administered APs on a routine and/or as-needed basis. Based on the Multidimensional Observation Scale for Elderly Subjects (MOSES) ratings, AP users were more irritable, disoriented, and withdrawn than were nonusers. Also, AP users demonstrated agitated behaviors more frequently. Notably, AP users and nonusers differed significantly in terms of documented mental health diagnoses. Among AP users, 70.1% had documented dementia, 8.3% were psychotic or had other psychiatric disorders, and 21.6% had no mental health diagnoses. In contrast, the majority of nonusers had no mental health disorders. Logistic regression revealed that diagnostic factors, frequency of agitation, level of withdrawal, and marital status were significant predictors of AP use

Research paper thumbnail of Activity and Health-Related Quality of Life in Continuing Care Retirement Communities

Research on Aging, 2002

This study examines the relationships between health-related quality of life and activity engagem... more This study examines the relationships between health-related quality of life and activity engagement among residents in two continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs). Prior research indicates that involvement in activity is an important correlate of healthy aging among other community-dwelling elders, and this finding is expected to hold in CCRCs. Time spent engaged in discretionary activities, specifically active, passive, and outside retirement community activities are expected to be associated with better health-related quality of life across multiple dimensions. Data were collected from 167 independent living and assisted living residents in two CCRCs in a large Midwestern metropolitan area. Activity engagement was measured via a self-report questionnaire. Health-related quality of life was measured using the Medical Outcomes Study Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36), which generates eight health subscales (e.g., physical functioning, social functioning, pain). Based on ordina...

Research paper thumbnail of (222) Pain and disruptive behaviors in nursing home residents with dementia: analysis of national MDS 3.0

The Journal of Pain, 2014

Research paper thumbnail of Linking depressive symptoms and functional disability in late life

Aging & Mental Health, 2003

We hypothesized that the relationship of depressive symptoms to functional disability might be me... more We hypothesized that the relationship of depressive symptoms to functional disability might be mediated by cognitive processes such as memory and problem-solving. The study sample consisted of 147 community-dwelling older adults (mean age = 74.0 years, SD = 5.9). In regression models that included terms for age, gender, and years of education, depressive symptoms were significantly inversely associated with two performance-based measures of functioning: everyday problems test (beta = -0.15, p = 0.04) and observed tasks of daily living (beta = -0.14, p = 0.02). When memory and problem-solving ability were added to the model, the relationship of depressive symptoms with function was attenuated. A structural equation model based on our conceptual framework revealed that both memory and problem-solving abilities were important mediators in the relationship of depressive symptoms and functional disability. The results suggest that intervention studies intended to limit functional disability secondary to depression among older adults may need to consider the effect of depression on cognition.

Research paper thumbnail of Pain Management for Older Adults Across the Cognitive Trajectory

Current Geriatrics Reports

Research paper thumbnail of Parkinson’s Disease Is Associated With Enhanced Pain-Related Disability And The Selective Loss Of Gray Matter In Subcortical Regions Of The Brain Related To Pain Processing (P6.079)

Neurology, Apr 8, 2014

OBJECTIVE: We tested the hypothesis that patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) experience greate... more OBJECTIVE: We tested the hypothesis that patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) experience greater levels of pain-related disability as a result of a disorder of pain modulation specifically related to the pathophysiology of PD. BACKGROUND: Pain in PD has been attributed to the musculoskeletal complications of the movement disorder. Recent attention has also focused on the likely presence of a disturbance of central pain processing, which may be evident from both pharmacologic interventions as well as with deep brain stimulation. Lacking definition are: 1) the functional consequences of this central disorder of pain processing, and 2) its neurological mechanisms. DESIGN/METHODS: From a federally funded investigation studying the neuroanatomical contribution to cognitive profiles of individuals with non-demented idiopathic Parkinson’s disease (PD; n=39; UPDRS-III =17.78(10.87); age=67.72(5.42)) plus non-PD healthy demographically matched peers (n=36; UPDRS-III=2.78(3.49); age=68.19(4.36)), we used the Brief Pain Inventory-Short Form (Cleeland, 1991) to examine hypotheses regarding group differences in pain intensity versus pain disability and associated neuroanatomical contributions. RESULTS: PD reported significantly higher levels of pain-related disability (PD=11.69 ±12.68); non-PD=4.42±9.32; p=.006) despite similar levels of pain intensity. Only for PD, pain ratings were negatively associated with thalamic (interference = r =-.51, p=.001; intensity r= -.36, p=.01;) and amygdala (interference=-.35, p=.02; intensity r= -.31; p=.03) volumes after controlling for total intracranial volume. There were no associations with loss of gray matter in other cortical or subcortical structures such as the caudate, globus pallidus, or hippocampus. Pain ratings were not associated with motor severity, but did increase with years of PD. CONCLUSIONS: Data show evidence for a central disorder of pain regulation in PD whose mechanisms may be distinct from the specific pathophysiology of the movement disorder. Study Supported by: NINDS K23NS060660 (CP); 1R01NS082386 (CP) Disclosure: Dr. Ahn has received personal compensation for activities with CoLucid Pharmaceuticals as a consultant. Dr. Tanner has nothing to disclose. Dr. Horgas has nothing to disclose. Dr. Okun has received royalty payments from Demos, Humana, Amazon and Cambridge. Dr. Okun has received research support from the Michael J. Fox Foundation, the National Parkinson Foundation, the Parkinson Alliance, the Smallwood Foundation, the Tourette Syndrome Association, the Bachmann-Strauss Foundation, and the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Price has nothing to disclose.