Pain Management in Older Persons

Abstract

Pain is a common symptom in the elderly and it is problematic and distressful especially if the polder person is dependent on a caregiver. Pain keeps the sufferer uncomfortable and can affect the person from carrying out daily activities and tasks especially activities of daily living. Pain in the older person may be acute or chronic. Some of the causes of pain in the elderly are neuralgia, musculoskeletal dysfunction especially osteoarthritis, emotional and mental problems, cancer and several other causes. The assessment of pain in the elderly is done using validated pain assessment tools such as the visual analogue scale, verbal rating scales, numeric rating scales, McGill pain assessment questionnaire, pain attitudes, brief pain inventory, and geriatric pain measure. Management of pain in older persons involves non-pharmacological and pharmacological methods. There are some barriers and challenges of pain management in the elderly and also consequences when pain is not properly managed or not managed at all in an older person.