Geriatrics & gerontology international
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Geriatr Gerontol Int · Jul 2014
Pain reports and pain medication treatment in nursing home residents with and without dementia.
The purpose of this pilot study was to determine if a diagnosis of dementia influenced pain self-reports and pain medication use in a group of verbally communicative nursing home (NH) residents. ⋯ Verbally communicative NH residents with mild and moderate cognitive impairment can report their pain symptoms and pain intensity. Nurses in long-term care might assume that residents with dementia cannot reliably self-report their pain; however, suffering from untreated severe pain could exacerbate cognitive impairment, worsen functional impairment and severely impair sleep. A brief, focused pain interview might be one method for increasing the detection of moderate to severe pain in verbally communicative NH residents with dementia.