• J Am Geriatr Soc · Apr 2003

    Prescription and dosage of analgesic medication in relation to resident behaviors in the nursing home.

    • Rebecca S Allen, Beverly E Thorn, Susan E Fisher, John Gerstle, Karen Quarles, Michelle S Bourgeois, Katinka Dijkstra, and Louis D Burgio.
    • Department of Psychology and Applied Gerontology Program, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487, USA. rsallen@hama.ua.edu
    • J Am Geriatr Soc. 2003 Apr 1; 51 (4): 534-8.

    ObjectivesTo examine correlates of analgesic medication prescription and administration in communicative, cognitively impaired nursing home residents. Residents' behaviors were assessed using computer-assisted real-time observations as potential adjunctive indicators of pain.DesignCross-sectional study over a 4-week period.SettingFive nursing homes in the greater Birmingham, Alabama, area.ParticipantsNinety-two residents (mean age +/- standard deviation = 83.86 +/- 8.55) with a mean Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score of 13.81 +/- 6.34.MeasurementsData were obtained via chart review, resident assessments, questionnaire completion by certified nursing assistants familiar with residents' care, and direct observation of residents' daily behaviors.ResultsReceipt of analgesic medication was related to self-report of pain (F2,89 = 9.89, P =.0001), MMSE (F2,88 = 3.98, P =.022), and time spent inactive (F2,89 = 3.04, P =.053). Residents who received analgesic medication reported greater intensity of pain than other residents. Residents who received analgesics had higher MMSE scores than those who did not receive analgesics. Residents who received analgesics spent less time being inactive than those not prescribed analgesics. Receipt of higher dosage of opioid analgesic medication was associated with more time spent with others in verbal interaction (r =.22, P =.03).ConclusionThis study refines the methodology of measuring analgesic medication dosage and its effect on resident behavior. Analgesic prescription and administration patterns are related to time residents spend being inactive. Results suggest that opioid analgesics may hold particular promise in alleviating pain, as indicated by resident behaviors.

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…