Alzheimer’s Patients Often Under-treated for Pain

Until recently it was thought that Alzheimer’s patients could not feel pain. Now it is understood that they feel pain as powerfully as others, maybe more so, but are unable to verbalize their feelings. This may be so especially for those in the later stages of the mind-robbing disease. Because they have lost communication skills, their pain may be under-treated by physicians and caregivers.

An Australian study using MRI real-time brain scans to check the brain’s major pain channels gave clear evidence that pain may still be intensely felt in the Alzheimer’s patient. The study compared Alzheimer’s patients who could still describe their pain to other study participants who were volunteers without the disease.


In this study appearing in an online edition of the journal Brain, study authors concluded that dealing with pain became problematic because diseased patients were unable to divert their attention from it, as healthy volunteers were able to do. If patients in the study who could still communicate found pain to be bewildering, it might be even more so for those with Alzheimer’s.

When words can no longer adequately express pain, doctors and other caregivers can look for facial expressions and body movements that show discomfort. Often, the Alzheimer’s patient’s caregiver has a greater capacity to understand these signals of pain than even their physicians. They look for signs of agitation, altered eye contact, grimacing, or other indications.

It is generally impossible to totally eliminate pain in Alzheimer’s patients or in other persons with chronic pain. The goal for those with Alzheimer’s Disease or other dementias should be to find greater levels of comfort and pain management.

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