These data suggest that, for more than 20 years, a focus on cancer pain has not adequately addressed the perception of treatment barriers or limitations in pain-related knowledge and practice within the oncology community. Additional efforts are needed to achieve meaningful progress.

There is substantial variation in attitudes and practices of the various disciplines that treat chronic pain. This information may be useful in interpreting differences in patient access to pain care, planning studies to clarify patient outcomes in relation to different providers and treatment strategies, and designing a system that matches chronic pain patients to appropriate practitioners and treatments.

Low dose, long-acting opioids can lessen agitation that is difficult to control in very old (> or =85) patients with advanced dementia.

A substantial decrease in restraint use occurred without an increase in serious injuries. Although minor injuries and falls increased, restraint-free care is safe when a comprehensive assessment is done and restraint alternatives are used.

The purpose of this study was to assess the reliability and validity of facial expressions as pain indicators in patients with severe dementia. Based on interviews with patients who could report pain, we defined characteristics of decubitus ulcers associated with reports of pain during dressing changes. We then evaluated 9 patients who had ulcers with these characteristics but were unable to communicate verbally because of severe dementia. We videotaped their facial expressions before and during their decubitus ulcer dressing change. We showed the videotape segments, in random order, to 8 medical students and 10 nurses. The 18 viewers were asked to infer the presence or absence of pain based on their observations of the patients' facial expressions and vocalizations. The dressing change of decubitus ulcers extending beyond the subcutaneous tissue, covering an area of at least 9 cm(2), and with a moist surface, was always reported as painful by study patients able to report (95% confidence interval of 69-100%). The intraclass correlation coefficient for the answers of the 18 viewers evaluating each videotape segment for the presence of pain was 0.64. Sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values of viewers' ratings of facial expressions and vocalizations as a measure of the presence of pain were: 0.70, 0.83, 0.90, and 0.81. The intraclass correlation coefficient for the answers rating pain intensity was only 0.10, indicating only slight agreement beyond chance. Assuming dressing changes of ulcers reported as painful by communicative patients are also painful in non-verbal severely demented patients, clinician observations of facial expressions and vocalizations are accurate means for assessing the presence of pain, but not its intensity, in patients unable to communicate verbally because of advanced dementia.

Botulinum toxin B is not dramatically superior to placebo for the relief of CTS symptoms. Possible explanations of the improvements in each study group are explored.

The relationships of serum lipids with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and other dementias in very old patients are not clear. All residents of an academic nursing home were studied clinically for dementia and for serum lipids. All those autopsied over a 7.7-year period had apolipoprotein E (apoE) genotyping and detailed neuropathological examination. Those with pathologically defined criteria for AD (n = 84) were compared to all others who also had clinical dementia but did not show AD changes (n = 22). In contrast to most other reports of serum lipids in very old patients with AD, total cholesterol (TC) and low density lipoprotein cholesterol levels were each significantly higher for those with AD. The lipid-AD associations were progressively stronger with increasing pathological certainty of AD diagnosis. These relationships remained significant after adjustment for apoE genotype and for other known risk factors. The lipid-AD associations in a very old cohort, and prior evidence that elevated TC in middle life is a risk factor for later dementia, prompt consideration of factors associated with lipid metabolism in the development of Alzheimer’s dementia.

No abstract