Pain and Dementia

I was the keynote speaker at the Alzheimers Society of Manitoba conference this week. They had close to six hundred people registered.

The second plenary speaker was Dr. Sean Morrison, from, among other things, the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York. Dr. Morrison spoke about pain treatment of people with dementia. It was frightening what his research revealed. There was a consistent pattern of difference of treatment with pain medication for people with dementia than with people who did not suffer from dementia. That pattern was that the people with dementia were treated with less medication for the same condition.

Why would people with dementia receive less medication for pain than people with similar conditions who did not have dementia? Most likely because of two things: one, those with dementia are unable to voice their pain and/or needs the same way that the others could. The other, and this is speculation on my part, could have to do with the attitude and approach of caregivers/ professionals. This includes lack in knowledge and understanding, lack of time to listen, lack of communication with those who could speak for the people with dementia.

What does this mean for caregivers? It means PAY ATTENTION. Pain is often undiagnosed. Often people think there is nothing that can be done, or that they have to just bear it. And more.

Listen for pain symptoms.

Treat pain, or painful conditions.