Pain In The Elderly
Wednesday, August 27th, 20082 points to start
- The prevalence of pain increases with age.
- This is an emergency in geriatrics because it causes anorexia, malnutrition, insomnia, depression, loss of autonomy syndrome shift (significant risk of suicide in the elderly) patient, and affects the ‘entourage.
DEFINITIONS
There are three levels in pain:
1) Definition of pain: There are many. The most satisfactory is that of the International Association for the Study of Pain proposed in 1979: “Pain is a sensory and emotional experience unpleasant linked to tissue damage existing or potential or described in terms of such damage. The pain has four components: sensory, emotional, cognitive and behavioral.
2) Definition of suffering: The reactions caused by pain correspond to the notion of suffering. An association of phenomena in both physical, moral and psychological involving all the mechanisms emotional, intellectual and instinctive. The pain varies greatly from one individual to another, it depends on the context or the meaning of pain. Thus the pain of post-operative scarring is less painful than those that accompany recurrence of cancer.
3) The total pain: Cecily Saunders has described as “total pain” multiple components of chronic pain: physical, psychological, spiritual and social. Chronic pain is in itself a disease for some. The prediction of continuity leads to anxiety, depression and insomnia which, in turn, exacerbate the physical components of pain. (more…)