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Comparative Study
. 2014 Jun;29(4):320-5.
doi: 10.1177/1533317513517046. Epub 2013 Dec 26.

The Use of Visual Analog Scales to Compare Pain Between Patients With Alzheimer's Disease and Patients Without Any Known Neurodegenerative Disease and Their Caregivers

Sara Santos  1 , Miguel Castanho  2
Affiliations
Comparative Study

The Use of Visual Analog Scales to Compare Pain Between Patients With Alzheimer's Disease and Patients Without Any Known Neurodegenerative Disease and Their Caregivers

Sara Santos et al. Am J Alzheimers Dis Other Demen. 2014 Jun.

Abstract

Patients diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease (AD) tend to underestimate their pain degree as disease progresses. Their caregivers are the most important source of information by providing regular pain evaluation. Our objectives were to compare pain intensity and affective pain between patients with AD and cognitively normal individuals (N) and to evaluate differences in pain perception between their caregivers. We evaluated pain scores of 121 patients with chronic osteoarticular pain, 60 AD, and 61 N using the colored pain scale/faces pain scale and the caregiver's perception. Data were analyzed using one and two-tailed paired t tests (P< .05). We found that the AD group reported less pain intensity and that their pain was less perceived by their caregiver. This study also points to the need of, when evaluating patients with AD always measure their pain degree using appropriate scales, instead of relying only on the caregiver.

Keywords: Alzheimer; caregiver; pain; scales.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
The Colored Pain Scale
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
The Faces Pain Scale
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Difference in pain report between AD group and N group.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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