Treatment of Pain in the Older Patient

UBC Faculty Research and Publications

Treatment of Pain in the Older Patient Therapeutics Initiative (University of British Columbia)

Description

Therapeutics Letter 33 considers the evidence and principles for drug therapy of chronic non-malignant pain in the older person. Conclusions: Chronic pain, particularly of musculo-skeletal origin, is a common problem for the elderly. Long-term controlled trials in older people with chronic pain are lacking and are needed to guide rational therapy. Physiological changes that occur with aging make older individuals more sensitive to the effects of drugs. Most analgesic drugs provide modest benefit to only a minority of patients. Start with low doses and titrate; symptomatic and functional benefits are evident early (usually within 1-2 weeks). Benefit of each analgesic must be established by a therapeutic trial and reassessed regularly. Overall goal of analgesic therapy is improved function and quality of life.

Item Metadata

Title	Treatment of Pain in the Older Patient
Alternate Title	Therapeutics Letter 33
Creator	Therapeutics Initiative (University of British Columbia)
Date Issued	2000-02
Description	Therapeutics Letter 33 considers the evidence and principles for drug therapy of chronic non-malignant pain in the older person. Conclusions: Chronic pain, particularly of musculo-skeletal origin, is a common problem for the elderly. Long-term controlled trials in older people with chronic pain are lacking and are needed to guide rational therapy. Physiological changes that occur with aging make older individuals more sensitive to the effects of drugs. Most analgesic drugs provide modest benefit to only a minority of patients. Start with low doses and titrate; symptomatic and functional benefits are evident early (usually within 1-2 weeks). Benefit of each analgesic must be established by a therapeutic trial and reassessed regularly. Overall goal of analgesic therapy is improved function and quality of life.
Subject	Aged; Analgesics; Chronic Pain; Quality of Life
Genre	Other
Type	Text
Language	eng
Notes	The UBC TI is funded by the BC Ministry of Health to provide evidence-based information about drug therapy. We neither formulate nor adjudicate provincial drug policies.
Date Available	2023-06-20
Provider	Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
Rights	Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
DOI	10.14288/1.0433612
URI	http://hdl.handle.net/2429/85022
Affiliation	Medicine, Faculty of; Anesthesiology, Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Department of
Peer Review Status	Reviewed
Scholarly Level	Faculty; Researcher
Rights URI	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Aggregated Source Repository	DSpace

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