Many Elderly Do Not Receive Pain Medication

By Suzanne Rostler

December 19, 2001

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Too many elderly people may be suffering unnecessarily from daily pain, according to the results of a study in Italy.

The investigators found that 43% of more than 3,000 individuals aged 65 and older living at home reported daily pain. Nearly half of those aged 75 to 84 reported that they experienced pain daily, as did 41% of those aged 85 and older, and 39% of individuals aged 65 to 74.

The oldest patients were the least likely to be on pain-relieving drugs. And patients with dementia, which becomes more prevalent with age, were also less likely to receive analgesics, the researchers note in the Archives of Internal Medicine (news - web sites) for December 10/24.

Overall, only about one quarter of those who said they experienced daily pain reported receiving medication to relieve their discomfort, the report indicates.

``Unrelieved pain can have enormous physiological and psychological effects on patients and their loved ones,'' Dr. Francesco Landi from the Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Rome, Italy, told Reuters Health. ``Pain negatively affects quality of life by impairing daily functions, social relationships, sleep and self-worth.''

Landi and colleagues blame the high levels of unrelieved pain on misperceptions about pain in the elderly. For example, some physicians may believe that pain is part of normal aging, that individuals with dementia have a higher tolerance for pain or that elderly people are at risk of becoming addicted to pain medication, Landi said in an interview.

However, ``inadequate attention to pain control is unethical, clinically unacceptable, and wasteful in terms of cost,'' the researchers conclude. Better pain management, they note, may speed older patients' recovery from illness, cut down on hospital stays and improve their quality of life.

The findings are based on interviews with and observations of elderly people in a home healthcare program. Daily pain was defined as any type of discomfort in any part of the body over the 7 days preceding the interview, Landi explained.

SOURCE: Archives of Internal Medicine 2001;161:2721-2724.