Psychiatry
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Comparative Study
Pain assessment in patients with possible vascular dementia.
PREVIOUS studies comparing Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients with the normal elderly suggest that AD patients experience less pain. In the present study, pain reporting in 20 patients with possible vascular dementia (VaD) was compared to 20 nondemented elderly who had comparable pain conditions. It was hypothesized that, due to de-afferentiation, the possible VaD patients would experience more pain than the cognitively intact elderly. ⋯ Results showed a significant increase in the scores on the CAS for Pain Affect and the FPS in the demented patients compared to the control group. There was a tendency for an increase in scores on the CNPI in the VaD group. These results suggest that patients with possible VaD suffer more pain than healthy elderly without cognitive impairment.