Chronic Pain In Older Adults

Psychological factors are known to contribute to how people experience and cope with pain. However, as people age, they experience normative age-related changes in psychological functioning. Thus, much of what is known about psychology and pain may not necessarily apply to older adults, unless it has specifically been tested in older populations. This is a particularly important point, because pain remains a major problem for millions of older adults. Furthermore, it is expected that the populations of older adults in America will increase significantly in the coming years, as people are living longer now that at any other point in history. Given that psychology changes across the lifespan, and that pain is a problem in older populations, this

This article addresses an important issue on how to develop frailty assessment tools in older adults with musculoskeletal disorders. Why is this topic more essential? Frailty has found in various fields of chronic diseases not only in musculoskeletal disorders. I am interested in frailty; however, it is tricky to determine who present frail in older adults having physical function limitation. Therefore, the different among physical function limitation, immobility, and frailty are still hard to justification. For example, older adults having secondary or third osteoarthritis always presents with severe pain at the knee joint. This pain also interferes his/her physical function. The more joints movement, the greater pain emerge. Reducing severe

Dealing with aging dementia patients can be a challenge in and of itself. However, when healthcare providers need to include regulating pain as well, the challenge becomes even greater. Pain management with cognitively impaired patients is a constant problem within geriatric care in modern healthcare facilities (Zwakhalen et al 2006). The reduced self capacity to report pain in its true degrees then makes pain management a challenge for physicians and healthcare providers (Husebo et al. 2007). Thus, research aims to explore effective measures for observing and reporting pain management within aging dementia patients.

Unfortunately, many clinicians and older adults wrongfully assume that pain should be expected in aging, which leads to less aggressive treatment. Older adults have additional fears about becoming dependent, undergoing invasive procedures, taking pain medications, and having a financial burden. The most common pain-producing conditions for aging adults include

The document Seniors and Aging – Osteoarthritis as part of the It’s Your Health newsletter was prepared by Health Canada in collaboration with the Public Health Agency of Canada. The target audience of this document are the at-risk population of seniors in Canada, who are at an increased risk for developing osteoarthritis. The document emphases certain risk factors that increase the likelihood of getting osteoarthritis and highlights potential steps to decrease one’s likelihood of developing the condition. The majority of Canadians with osteoarthritis are above the age of seventy. Therefore, the purpose of the document is to decrease the prevalence of osteoarthritis by educating the population about risk factors for developing the condition.

According to The World Health Organisation (1999), defined pain as an unpleasant sensory or emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage. Pain is traditionally described as acute or chronic pain. The prevalence of chronic pain (CP) is higher than of acute of pain, as it affects 7.8 million people of all ages in the UK (Chronic Pain Policy Coalition., 2006). The current leading cause of mortality that is accounting for 60% of all deaths is due to chronic diseases and is also a problem as causes an increasing burden on the health care service (World Health Organisation., 2007). CP can affect a person’s quality of life if managed poorly, statistics shows that 25% of people lose their job and 22% leads to depression. (Chronic Pain Policy Coalition.,

In order to identify and prevent persistent pain in elderly population with dementia, Monacelly et al. (2013) conducted a study in a nursing home in Italy by using Doloplus-2 pain assessment tool. The participants were patients (n=23) with moderate to severe dementia and were unable to express the feeling of pain. Researchers obtained consent from the management and designated legal guardians of the patients. The purpose of the study was to observe the pain symptoms of the same group of elderly population for a period of one year and evaluate the effectiveness of the pain management by using the Doloplus-2 diagnostic pain assessment tool. As an initial part of the study, presence of pain was confirmed in participated patients by using the Doloplus-2

There is a growing geriatric population of people with dementia (the subpopulation) throughout the world that are living in pain constantly. Because dementia as a condition with multifaceted symptomology manifested by advancing overall decline of cognitive ability, it causes severe and distinctive barriers to pain assessment and pain management in this subpopulation. The existence of multiple comorbidities, polypharmacy and the declining cognition in this subpopulation results in a much more complex pain symptomology. Zwakhalen, Hamers, Abu-Saad, and (replaced & with and) Berger, (2006), explain that common behaviors associated with pain may be absent or difficult to interpret in this subpopulation because some dementia symptoms may be an indication of pain, but such behavior, however, might also be incorrectly interpreted as a symptom of dementia. Therefore, pain in this subpopulation is exceptionally challenging to evaluate and manage as a result of this difficulty.

Previous research has indicated that the chronic pain is a common medical complaint among long-term care residents, which is often under-diagnosed and undertreated or inadequately treated. Natan, Ataneli, Admenko and Noy (2013) concluded the need of pain assessment training focusing on positive attitudes towards older adults as part of pre service-nursing career. The purpose of this descriptive correlational study was to identify factors predicting nurses’ performance of pain assessment among older long-term care residents and to examine variables associated with ageist attitude. Study was conducted among 104 nurses of long term care facility. Multiple linear regression analysis was done to examine the association between the variables.

Chronic Pain is an interesting problem in society today. The exact cause of Chronic Pain is not the same in every patient. In fact most patients present with different symptoms and associated pathologies, such as the strong link with depression. Treatment of Chronic Pain is often performed a single practitioner whether that be a Medical Doctor, Chiropractor, Nutritionist, or an alternative health care professional. Chronic Pain is often extremely complex, because of this treatment needs to be multidimensional. Effective care of Chronic Pain requires the collective cooperation of health care professionals

Exercise is not usually the word that comes to mind when one thinks of an older adult. It is believed that an older adult in pain should not complete an exercise program due to the fact that it could make their pain worse. This is not the case and in the study by Mimi MY test, Physical exercise: does it help in relieving pain and increasing mobility among older adults

intensity in order to gather information about the effectiveness of current interventions if the individual has tried anything. Treatment of these patient pain should include strategies to increase the patient’s capacity to some environmental challenges. It’s established that regular physical therapy, exercise, and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) are important for healthy aging and are beneficial for chronic disease management such as pain (“CDC Guideline for prescribing,” 2017). If the elderly patient’s health status prevents them from achieving the daily recommended goals, it is better for them to achieve a small amount of exercise than nothing at all, but guidance and providing pictures with instructions is important Callahan (as cited

The International Association for the Study of Pain defines pain as “an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage” (1979). Pain is actually the culprit behind warranting a visit to a physician office for many people (Besson, 1999). Notoriously unpleasant, pain could also pose a threat as both a psychological and economic burden (Phillips, 2006). Sometimes pain does happen without any damage of tissue or any likely diseased state. The reasons for such pain are poorly understood and the term used to describe such type of pain is “psychogenic pain”. Also, the loss of productivity and daily activity due to pain is also significant. Pain engulfs a trillion dollars of GDP for lost work time and disability payments (Melnikova, 2010). Untreated pain not only impacts a person suffering from pain but also impacts their whole family. A person’s quality of life is negatively impacted by pain and it diminishes their ability to concentrate, work, exercise, socialize, perform daily routines, and sleep. All of these negative impacts ultimately lead to much more severe behavioral effects such as depression, aggression, mood alterations, isolation, and loss of self-esteem, which pose a great threat to human society.

This paper is going to talk about how to deal with chronic pain. First of all, this paper will explain what chronic pain means by providing the foremost chronic pain encountered in life such as low back, joints, or other kinds. Next, this paper will cover why it is important to address conditions related to chronic pain, and will explore methods and strategies showing how to cope with continuing pain. Finally, this paper will share some predictable outcomes and a conclusion.

However, what if chronic back pain could be managed by adding alternative therapies such as yoga to modern treatments? Yoga is an additional therapy that decreases chronic back pain by promoting movement and decreasing pain medication dependence (Lee, Crawford & Schoomaker, 2014). This could radically reduce the dependence on drugs for pain relief and lead to a movement where pain is managed with the help of both modern medicine and affordable alternative remedies. With this in mind, promoting alternative therapies, such as yoga, in collaboration with modern treatments provides a larger range of options with different efficiencies for those with chronic back pain.