Chronic Pain in Cognitively Impaired Elderly: Challenges in Assessment, Diagnosis, And Treatment (Report)

Abstract One of the greatest challenges facing health care today is the provision of proper pain management in elderly patients suffering from both acute and chronic pain. The task of caring for suffering individuals is magnified when those patients are inflicted with cognitive impairments. Approximately 4 1/2 million Americans suffer from Alzheimer's disease and it is estimated that around 14 million will have the disease by the year 2050 if a cure is not found. With the possible exception of depression, the mental disorder constituting the greatest health problem in the older age group is organic brain syndrome of varying etiology and severity. Elders with dementing illness receive fewer pain medications and interventions aimed at relieving discomfort than those elders without brain syndromes. The purpose of this paper is to provide information regarding the enormity of the problem, discuss assessment tools available for use when identifying the pain in this group, list usual and unusual manifestations of pain in patients with dementia, identify the most common differential diagnosis causing pain symptoms and suggest treatment methodologies for treating pain in this special population.