Sunday, May 4, 2008

Nursing homes undertreat dementia patients' pain

Nursing home residents with dementia appear to be less likely to receive pain medication than other residents, even though they have just as many painful health conditions, a new study suggests.

Researchers at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill evaluated data for 551 residents of six nursing homes across the state and found that residents who were cognitively impaired were less likely to receive regular doses of pain medication or to receive pain drugs at all.

This was despite the fact that dementia patients and cognitively healthy patients had similar rates of often-painful conditions like cancer, osteoarthritis and degeneration in the spinal disks.

Pain medications are often prescribed to be taken "as needed," the researchers note. The findings suggest that more nursing home residents with dementia should be on regularly scheduled doses of pain medication, they report in the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management.

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