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The Elderly with Dementia

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Guide to the Inpatient Pain Consult

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Abstract

Pain management in elderly patients, especially elderly patients with dementia, presents unique challenges. As studies have shown in the past, this particular group’s pain is often under-treated due to cognitive decline, lack of or difficulties in communication, and different manifestations of pain than the general adult population. In treating their pain, clinicians should keep multiple considerations in mind, including age-related physiologic changes and their pharmacologic implications, functional and cognitive limitations, patients’ and caregivers’ goals, and various dimensions of pain including biopsychosocial facets. Clinicians should be aware of available nonpharmacologic treatment options, including physical therapy, occupational therapy, music therapy, massage therapy and pet therapy that maybe available at their location. We discuss in this chapter a number of factors to consider in appropriately treating this population’s pain as well as recommendations to best manage pain in the elderly with dementia in the inpatient setting.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Orthopedics and Rehabilitation, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA

    Sook Kyung Yoon

  2. Anesthesia and Pain Medicine Service Line, VA Puget Sound Health Care System, Seattle, WA, USA

    Peggy Y. Kim

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  1. Sook Kyung Yoon
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  2. Peggy Y. Kim
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anesthesiology, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, WI, USA

    Alaa Abd-Elsayed

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Yoon, S.K., Kim, P.Y. (2020). The Elderly with Dementia. In: Abd-Elsayed, A. (eds) Guide to the Inpatient Pain Consult. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-40449-9_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-40449-9_15

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