Essay On 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

Research has shown that there are several organizations and active advocates who are working on pain management problems to face this public health issue. The following establishments involve: The American Academy of Pain Medicine, Institute of Medicine, and American Pain Society and many for-profit and nonprofit organizations are also working at different level towards pain management. Most specifically, the IOM has been devoted to studying pain and its consequences on individuals, the healthcare system, as well as on government (IOM, 2011).

4. Shega, J. W., Dale, W., Andrew, M., Paice, J., Rockwood, K., & Weiner, D. K. (2012). Persistent Pain and Frailty: A Case for Homeostenosis. Journal Of The American Geriatrics Society, 60(1), 113-117. doi:10.1111/j.1532-5415.2011.03769.x

“Pain is much more than a physical sensation caused by a specific stimulus. An individual's perception of pain has important affective (emotional), cognitive, behavioral, and sensory components that are shaped by past experience, culture, and situational factors. The nature of the stimulus for pain can be physical, psychological, or a combination of both.” (Potter, Perry, Stockert, Hall, & Peterson, 2014 p. 141) As stated by Potter et al, the different natures of pain are dealt with differently depending on many factors. Knowing this, treating pain can be very difficult as there is no single or clear cut way of measuring it; “Even though the assessment and treatment of pain is a universally important health care issue,

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

What is pain? If you ask someone to tell you the definition of pain they will typically state something that hurts. Registered nurses should know the definition of pain and how it can be identified on their patients. However, Abdalrahim, Majali, Stomberg, and Bergbom (2010) propose that nurses did not receive adequate education in pain management and suggest the lack of knowledge hinders their ability to adequate control their patients’ pain. Therefore, the unethical treatment of pain can be traced back nurses.

Pain is one of the most influential symptoms that leads individuals to reach out to health care professionals to seek relief. Pain is subjective and unique to each person. Some individuals may have a higher pain tolerance than others. According to Frandsen (2014), “Pain is an unpleasant, sensory, emotional sensation associated with actual or potential tissue injury” (p. 889). Pain may be caused by a variety of elements, such as tissue or nerve damage and surgery. There are three main categories that pain is classified by, which are origin, duration, and cause. The main focus of this paper is on acute pain, chronic pain, and phantom pain. It is crucial to know how to assess each type of pain, as well as how to enhance it, or decrease the pain.

Aim/ purpose of study: Conglomeration of current data on pain and pain management for patients with dementia.

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

“Pain is a complex, multidimensional experience that can cause suffering. [While] pain is inevitable, suffering is optional” (Kinder, 2014, p. 114). The control of pain is, as Kinder puts it very complex, without appropriate measures it can be easily side stepped especially in the elderly. To ensure patient center care it is important that all aspect of one’s quality of life is address, this is emphasizing by pain being a component of vital signs. Being a vulnerable population the elderly is often under assessed as they minimized their problems so as not to be a burden in addition to the fact that they may believe that their pain is a normal part of aging.

It is a challenge to manage pain in older adults. The course of action, effect and

‘Pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage’ (International association for the study of pain 2014). Pain can be made up of complex and subjective experiences. The experience of pain is highly personal and private, and can not be directly observed or measured from one person to the next (Mac Lellan 2006). According to the agency for health care policy and research 1992, an individuals self-report of pain is the most reliable indicator of its presence. This is also supported by Mc Caffery’s definition in 1972, when he said ‘Pain is whatever the experiencing patient says it is, existing whenever he says it does’.

Pain is something that connects all of us. From birth to death we can identify with each other the idea and arguably the perception of it. We all know we experience it, but what is more important is how we all perceive it. It is known that there are people out there with a ‘high’ pain tolerance and there are also ones out there with a ‘low’ pain tolerance, but what is different between them? We also know that pain is an objective response to certain stimuli, there are neurons that sense and feel pain and there are nerve impulses that send these “painful” messages to the brain. What we don’t know is where the pain

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.