Yenisel Cruz-Almeida is Professor and Associate Director of the Pain Research & Intervention Center of Excellence, and her research sits at the intersection of pain, aging, and the brain.
The organizing question in her work is what happens to pain processing as the nervous system ages — and whether the changes we see in the aging brain help explain why chronic pain becomes so much more common in later life.
That question belongs at the start of a week about all ages. Pain is not one thing that arrives and stays. The nervous system that processes it is being remodelled the whole time.
Two recent papers show the range. In a 2026 study in ACR Open Rheumatol, she and colleagues Alisa Johnson and B.C. Murillo found that pain sensitivity profiles in people with symptomatic knee osteoarthritis were associated with muscle biomechanics and clinical pain — linking how a person’s nervous system processes pain to how their body actually moves. That connection matters clinically, because it suggests two patients with identical joint damage may need different interventions.
In a 2025 paper in PAIN Reports, she was part of the team that found pain recall in older adults is distorted by how much the pain fluctuates — work with direct implications for how clinicians gather history.
She was the second guest on the PRICE of Pain podcast, discussing the center’s research directions.
Pain and aging is one of the six areas covered by the PRICE research registry — and given Florida’s demographics, one of the most consequential.
We asked her what an ageing nervous system changes about how pain should be assessed and treated.
A pain score alone is not enough. We need to measure how the nervous system is processing pain, using quantitative sensory testing, imaging, and biological markers of aging, alongside mood, sleep, cognition, and social context. Chronic pain in older adults is not just a symptom of aging. It may be a driver of it. Treating the pain means treating the nervous system that is generating it.
Yenisel Cruz-Almeida, PhD, MSPH
What we study:
- Pain and Aging
- Chronic Pain Risk Factors
- Pain and the Brain
- Musculoskeletal Pain
- Pain and Exercise
- Non-Medical Treatment of Pain
Prefer to talk to a person? Call 352-273-5967 or email PRICE-CTSI@ufl.edu.
UF Study ID IRB201400126
References
- Ho RLM, Warren TB, Park J, Shin YS, Petersen M, Cruz-Almeida Y, Coombes SA. Real-time and recollected ratings of pain, mood, and fatigue in older adults. Pain Rep. 2025 Oct;10(5). https://doi.org/10.1097/PR9.0000000000001326
- Johnson AJ, Murillo BC, Cruz-Almeida Y. Pain Sensitivity Profiles Are Associated With Muscle Biomechanics and Clinical Pain in Persons With Symptomatic Knee Osteoarthritis. ACR Open Rheumatol. 2026 Aug;8(8). https://doi.org/10.1002/acr2.90118
- PRICE of Pain podcast archive, 22 episodes (2021-2022). https://price.ctsi.ufl.edu/price-of-pain-podcast/