AI Article Synopsis
- The study examined the use and appropriateness of pain medications in older adults (≥65 years) in home care settings in Berlin, focusing on those with chronic pain.
- Out of 322 patients, almost 19% were not on any pain medication, with dipyrone being the most commonly prescribed, while many received opioids and NSAIDs.
- Results indicated significant issues in medication management, with only 18% of patients receiving appropriate pain treatment, highlighting a need for improved pain management strategies in this population.
Article Abstract
Objective: To analyze the pattern and appropriateness of pain medications in older adults receiving home care.
Methods: We performed a prospective cross-sectional study in patients ≥65 years old having chronic pain and receiving home care in Berlin, Germany. Data on prescribed pain medications were collected using self-reported information, nursing documents, and medication plans during interviews at home. Pain intensity was determined with the numeric rating scale (NRS) and the Pain Assessment In Advanced dementia (PAINAD) scale. The Pain Medication Appropriateness Scale score (SPMAS) was applied to evaluate inappropriateness (i.e. a score ≤67) of pain medication.
Results: Overall 322 patients with a mean age of 82.1 ± 7.4 years (71.4% females) were evaluated. The average pain intensity scores during the last 24 hours were 5.3 ± 2.1 and 2.3 ± 2.3 on NRS and PAINAD scale (range 0-10, respectively). Sixty (18.6%) patients did not receive any pain medication. Among the treated patients, dipyrone was the most frequently prescribed analgesic (71.4%), while 50.8% and 19.1% received systemic treatment with opioids and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, respectively. The observed median SPMAS was 47.6 (range 0-100) with 58 (18.0%) of patients achieving appropriate values. Half of the patients were treated with scheduled, while 29.9% were only treated with on-demand medications. Cognitive status had no effect on appropriateness of pain treatment.
Conclusions: We observed substantial deficits in dosing patterns and appropriateness of pain medication in older adults with pain receiving home care. This applied to both patients with and without severe cognitive impairment.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
|---|---|
| http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7034806 | PMC |
| http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0229229 | PLOS |
Publication Analysis
Top Keywords
Similar Publications
Electroencephalogram Correlates of Infant Spinal Anesthesia.
Anesth Analg
January 2025
Department of Anesthesiology, Montefiore Medical Center, The Children's Hospital at Montefiore, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York.
Mechanisms for dysregulation of excitatory-inhibitory balance underlying allodynia in dorsal horn neural subcircuits.
PLoS Comput Biol
January 2025
Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vermont, United States of America.
Chronic pain is a wide-spread condition that is debilitating and expensive to manage, costing the United States alone around $600 billion in 2010. In a common symptom of chronic pain called allodynia, non-painful stimuli produce painful responses with highly variable presentations across individuals. While the specific mechanisms remain unclear, allodynia is hypothesized to be caused by the dysregulation of excitatory-inhibitory (E-I) balance in pain-processing neural circuitry in the dorsal horn of the spinal cord.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFracture-healing effects of Rhizoma Musae ethanolic extract: An integrated study using UHPLC-Q-Exactive-MS/MS, network pharmacology, and molecular docking.
PLoS One
January 2025
GuiZhou Institute of Subtropical Crops, Guizhou Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Guiyang, China.
Background: Fracture disrupts the integrity and continuity of the bone, leading to symptoms such as pain, tenderness, swelling, and bruising. Rhizoma Musae is a medicinal material frequently utilized in the Miao ethnic region of Guizhou Province, China. However, its specific mechanism of action in treating fractures remains unknown.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA scoping review protocol on brain PaCO2 levels at altitude.
PLoS One
January 2025
Division of Neurology, Department of Medicine, The Ottawa Hospital, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Background: Aeromedical transfer of patients with ischemic stroke to access hyperacute stroke treatment is becoming increasingly common. Little is known about how rapid changes of altitude and atmospheric pressure can impact cerebral perfusion and ischemic burden. In patients with ischemic stroke, there is a theoretical possibility that this physiologic response of hypoxia-driven hyperventilation at higher altitude can lead to a relative drop in PaCO2.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRespectful maternity care and mistreatment: Women's experiences during induction of labor and childbirth in Ghana.
PLoS One
January 2025
Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Ghana Medical School, Accra, Ghana.
Background: Most studies on respectful maternity care (RMC) and mistreatment of women have focused on intrapartum care with limited information on how women are treated during induction of labor (IOL), pre-labor phase of the maternity care continuum. Emerging multi-country evidence indicates that nearly 30% of women who undergo IOL do not consent to the procedure and constitutes a violation of their rights to optimal maternal health. This study explored women's lived experiences of respectful care and mistreatment during IOL in a tertiary setting in Ghana.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWant AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!