Pain assessment in a geriatric psychiatry program.

Background: The assessment of pain in older persons with psychiatric illness is particularly challenging for health care professionals. There are few well-tested pain assessment tools for this population.

Objectives: A study was conducted to explore pain assessment and management issues in geriatric psychiatry.

Instruments for the assessment of pain in older persons with cognitive impairment.

Pain in older persons with cognitive impairment is often unrecognized and inadequately treated. A major problem associated with this undertreatment is the challenging nature of pain assessment and in particular the selection of accurate and useful assessment instruments. The purpose of this study was to review pain measurement instruments for acute and chronic pain suggested for use with cognitively impaired older persons and to summarize available evidence on their reliability and validity.