Pain management among elderly people with knee pain

Abstract

Knee pain is one of the common symptoms experienced by elderly people. Knee pain problem is a complex issue which contains physical and psychological aspects. For example, knee pain is associated with muscle weakness, mobility limitation, cognitive difficulties, behavioral abnormalities, and emotional upheavals. Recently, non-pharmacological treatment (e.g., exercise therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy) to improve physical and psychological outcomes has been used to cope with knee pain. The aim of this review is to introduce the key studies on non-pharmacological treatment for knee pain. Some studies showed that exercise therapy was effective for alleviating knee pain and improving physical function and that cognitive behavioral therapy improved psychological parameters. Moreover, combined exercise and cognitive behavioral therapy intervention may be more effective for pain management elderly people with knee pain than non-combined therapy. However there is a lack of evidence indicating the efficacy of such combined intervention, further research is needed.