Abstract

Dementia is a core symptom in Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and Other Dementia Related Diseases (ODRDs). It accounts for one of the foremost health concerns in elderly individuals with ongoing decline in cognition, activities of daily living and behavior. In addition, what is commonly not accounted for as a primary symptom in AD and ODRDs is pain. Unfortunately, Chronic Pain (CP) is most often overlooked and therefore underdiagnosed due to insufficient knowledge around the CP neuroscientific mechanisms in AD and ODRDs. In turn, a thorough biopsychosocial assessment of pain in this population group does most often not occur and therefore, as a consequence, necessary pain management is not implemented. There is still insufficient tools or a battery of instruments that are fully reliable and valid to you use when assessing pain in AD and ODRDs for both communicative and non-communicative individuals. Furthermore, the instruments that do exist, are not validated for use in a sufficient number of global settings. Interdisciplinary pain management programs still need to be further advocated for when managing CP in patients with AD and ODRDs. Both pharmacological, interventional, and non-pharmacological treatment modalities to manage pain is most often necessary to target all the pain pathophysiological mechanisms that produce an individual’s pain experience. Thus, a multitude of treatments should be used to focus on the impact that CP has on the lives of people living with AD and ODRDs. Of utmost importance is maintaining a patient-centered individualized treatment approach. This review aims to reveal what is currently in practice in terms of assessing and managing pain in AD and ODRDs, and the current gaps that are still in place, that require further rigid research to translate into stronger evidence based-clinical practice.

Keywords: Chronic Pain (CP); Alzheimer’s Disease (AD); Other Dementia Related Diseases (ODRDs); Pain assessment; Interdisciplinary pain management; Biopsychosocial framework