Pain in the elderly is a serious issue that is often misunderstood and untreated or undertreated. Many seniors have several health issues and pain management can be tricky because of interactions between medications, fear of “drugging up” the patients, misunderstanding of the severity of the pain, and the effects that some drugs can have on the elderly that they don’t have on younger people.
According to the Merck Manual of Geriatrics, “In one study, pain prevalence in the elderly ranged from 36 to 88%, and prevalence may be higher among nursing home residents. In the US, about 1/5 of elderly people …read more