Dementia Studies

798 Words4 Pages
The studies we examined showed that about half of the subjects with dementia were suffering from pain, and that there was a similar prevalence to that found in people without dementia. The earliest studies found that people with dementia were less likely to be prescribed or administered medicines for pain. However a recent study suggests that people with dementia are more likely to be prescribed and administered medicines for pain. Several studies have found that nurses and carers may not feel confident about recognising pain in dementia and lack of knowledge about its treatment. Studies examining possible interventions to improve the management of pain found that the use of assessment tools helped in the assessment of pain and that Pain Assessment…show more content…
Patients suffering from moderate to severe dementia were less likely to receive analgesics compared to patients who were cognitively intact. Costigan in 1999 examined patients in four rest homes in Western Pennsylvania and found that patients with cognitive disabilities (including dementia) were administered significantly less analgesics compared to cognitively able peers (2,871 mg acetaminophen equivalents and 5,804 mg acetaminophen equivalents in one week respectively).58 Morrison and Siu in 2000 compared analgesic treatment in patients with hip fractures with or without severe dementia. The paper also concluded that patients with severe dementia received less analgesics compared to their cognitively able peers (1.2mg vs 4.5mg daily dose of morphine equivalents).59 These earlier studies indicate the reluctance of prescribers to prescribe or administer analgesics to patients with dementia. As mentioned previously, this is most likely due to the poor understanding of health professionals regarding pain in dementia and a common misconception that patients with dementia feel less…show more content…
Residents in D6 units were more likely to be prescribed any analgesic (97.4% residents vs 88.3% respectively (OR=4.92 (1.27-19.03), p=0.02) and more likely to be taking any analgesic 73.7% vs 54.7% respectively (OR=1.3 (1.37-3.91), p=0.002). Codeine and morphine were more commonly prescribed for D6 residents (codeine: 19.3% of prescriptions vs 9.1%; OR=3.24 (1.58-6.65), p=0.001) and (morphine: 12.3% of prescriptions vs 3.7%; OR=4.83 (2.11-11.02), p=<0.001)

More about Dementia Studies

Open Document