A – 48 Examining associations among the Pediatric Pain Screening Tool (PPST) and neurocognitive functioning in pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) survivors in the acute recovery period

Abstract Objective Pain in PICU survivors is an understudied area of research that may impact neuropsychological performance. We explored the relationship between a pain-risk screening tool and targeted neurocognitive functioning in the acute phase of recovery. Method Participants included 165 children aged 8-19 years old and their parents/caregivers. At 6-8 weeks post discharge, youth self-reported on the PPST and underwent a brief neuropsychological evaluation. Caregivers completed the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function, 2nd Edition (BRIEF-2). Kruskal-Wallis tests were utilized to explore differences across PPST risk groups on parent-rated and performance on objective cognitive assessment. Results Among our sample with fully complete PPST, 57% of children fell in the low-risk pain group, 28% fell in the medium-risk pain group, and 15% fell in the high-risk pain group on the PPST. Significant differences were observed across the PPST risk groups on our established Neurocognitive Index (NCI, z-score) H (2, N=137) =9.20, p=.010. Compared to the low-risk group, children in the medium-risk and high-risk groups demonstrated significantly lower outcomes on the NCI (p=.019 and p=.012, respectively). In contrast, there were no significant differences across PPST risk groups on the BRIEF-2. Conclusion Findings suggest acute pain post-PICU may negatively impact performance-based cognitive functioning. Additionally, assessing child perceptions of pain in the acute recovery period may be useful when considering potential targets for intervention. Future work should follow PICU survivors to investigate longitudinal associations between pain and neurocognitive outcomes across acute and post-acute periods.