Pain in the Elderly

Abstract

Pain in older adults is a very complex medical challenge as it often emerges with other medical conditions, which not only confounds its clinical assessment but also complicates the choices of effective treatment strategies. In this chapter, the most common types of pain-related clinical conditions in older adults will be presented. This will be followed by discussion of a number of key advances in the field of pain and aging, including in the areas of inflammation, stress, genetics and epigenetics, neuroscience, and psychosocial factors, and how advances in these key areas may help us to better assess pain in older adults as well as to devise personalized effective treatment strategies. Then, we will discuss the current choices of pain therapies, including both pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatments, along with the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying these therapeutic approaches. At the end, we will outline a number of key future challenges and directions for pain in aging research.