A large proportion of the elderly go untreated and undertreated for pain. Unfortunately thereare several potential negative outcomes on their health and quality of life when the elderly do notreceive pain treatment. For example, failure to treat pain properly can lead to depression, anxiety,cognitive impairment, immobility and sleep disturbances in untreated or undertreated elderly adults(source).There are many factors that make treating pain in the elderly more complicated. Doctors needto take precautions when prescribing certain pain medications to the elderly as older adults havesmaller kidneys and decreased blood flow resulting in less filtration of drugs in the body compared toyounger adults. In addition, the liver is smaller in aging adults making it more difficult for the liver tobreak down certain drugs. Another issue that may arise when treating elderly adults for pain is that theyoften fail to properly report their pain. This may be because they expect increased pain as part of aging,they may think reporting their pain will lead to more testing or there are communication issues due todementia or other cognitive disturbances. Therefore it is very important that pain is properly diagnosedin aging adults.If you notice your elderly loved one, crying, moaning, reporting frequent feelings of sadness,depression, hopelessness, they are not moving or they are staying in one place, poor appetite, unusualsleep patterns or restlessness then you should ensure they get assessed for pain. Talk to your lovedone’s doctor about getting a physical examination, using pain scales, imaging test or stimulation testssuch as an electromyography to determine pain.At Sprain Brook Manor Rehab we believe rehabilitation should happen with comfort. We offershort term care and nursing home care with several therapies including physical therapy, speechtherapy and cardiac therapy to help your loved ones get healthy while being cared for by anexperienced staff of doctors, nurses and therapists.This post is provided by Sprain Brook Manor Rehab which Provides unique opportunity to recover frommedical procedures that result in true satisfying results. Getting you stronger and better every day.Contact Us today to receive more information.Disclaimer: The information provided in this post in not intended to be construed as health advice, norshould it be considered a substitute for obtaining individual medical counsel or consulting your physician.
