Pain in Patients With Dementia and Behavioural Disturbances
Status:
Completed
Trial end date:
2010-10-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
In nursing homes (NHs) 80% of the patients have dementia, between 60%-80% exhibit behavioural
disturbances (BPSD), and more than 60% have pain. Both pain and BPSD is more common in those
with severe dementia. Since older persons with dementia have less communicative skills,
suffer from more pain and exhibit more agitation, pain may be a contributing factor in these
patients. More than 40% of patients with BPSD are treated with neuroleptics despite described
side-effects. There is an urgent need to investigate the impact of individual pain management
on BPSD in patients with dementia.
It was hypothesized that
- pain increase BPSD in patients with dementia
- individual pain treatment decrease BPSD in patients with dementia