Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) can lead to impairment of cognitive and executive functions. Individuals can also develop chronic pain that may be neuropathic which may further impair these functions. The present study evaluated chronic pain in individuals with TBI-related pain and their associations with cognitive functions using the Brief Visuospatial Memory TestRevised (BVMT-R) and Hodgkin's Verbal Learning Test (HVLT). For executive function evaluation, the Trail Making Test-B (TMT-B), and the Controlled Oral Word Association Test (COWAT) for sematic and phonemic fluency were used. A three-group comparison between healthy controls (HC, N = 37), TBI individuals with no pain (TBI-NP, N = 23), and TBI individuals with pain (TBI-P, N = 26) were used to determine differences in executive and cognitive functions. Our findings showed that there was a significant difference in cognitive function among all groups (cognitive composite, p = .01). In addition, TBI individuals with pain had a lower mean score in all cognitive function tests. Although there was a significant difference in executive function among all groups (executive composite, p = .02), individuals with no pain had a lower mean score than the other groups. These results suggest that chronic pain after TBI may impair cognitive abilities, but may not be associated with impairments in executive function. These results highlight the importance of a multidimensional pain evaluation and an evaluation of cognitive function in people with TBI. More comprehensive evaluation may facilitate the development of new treatment strategies targeting cognitive function in individuals with chronic pain after TBI.
