Pain assessment in patients with possible vascular dementia

EJA Scherder*, J Slaets, JB Deijen, Y Gorter, ME Ooms, M Ribbe, PJ Vuijk, K Feldt, M van de Valk, A Bouma, JA Sergeant

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

49 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

PREVIOUS studies comparing Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients with the normal elderly suggest that AD patients experience less pain. In the present study, pain reporting in 20 patients with possible vascular dementia (VaD) was compared to 20 nondemented elderly who had comparable pain conditions. It was hypothesized that, due to de-afferentiation, the possible VaD patients would experience more pain than the cognitively intact elderly. Pain assessment was conducted using three visual analogue scales, (1) the Coloured Analogue Scale (CAS) for Pain Intensity, (2) the CAS for Pain Affect, and (3) the Faces Pain Scale (FPS); a verbal pain questionnaire, Number of Words Chosen-Affective (NWC-A) of the McGill Pain Questionnaire; and an observation scale, the Checklist of Nonverbal Pain Indicators (CNPI). Results showed a significant increase in the scores on the CAS for Pain Affect and the FPS in the demented patients compared to the control group. There was a tendency for an increase in scores on the CNPI in the VaD group. These results suggest that patients with possible VaD suffer more pain than healthy elderly without cognitive impairment.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)133-145
Number of pages13
JournalPsychiatry-Interpersonal and biological processes
Volume66
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2003

Keywords

  • ALZHEIMERS-DISEASE
  • FRONTOTEMPORAL DEMENTIA
  • INITIAL VALIDATION
  • COGNITIVE STATUS
  • NURSING-HOME
  • SCALE
  • NEUROPATHOLOGY
  • DISCOMFORT
  • EXPERIENCE
  • FREQUENCY

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