Pain Assessment and Management in Dementia Care: Qualitative Perspectives of People With Dementia, Their Families, and Healthcare Professionals.
Lihui Pu, Matthew Barton, Madushika Kodagoda Gamage and 3 others
PMID 40200556WHAT IT FOUND
Pain in dementia was hard to recognise because communication is unreliable.
Participants relied on familiar carers, non-verbal cues and personalised assessment, not tools alone. Comfort measures were tried first, and training gaps were common.
Key findings
01Participants said pain can be missed when people with dementia cannot reliably describe it, and some people with dementia felt carers or clinicians did not acknowledge their pain.
02Familiarity helped identify pain changes, but pain tools were seen as ambiguous and hard for people with dementia to use.
03Non-drug comfort measures were used first because of concerns about polypharmacy and medication side effects, and participants wanted short online training on pain and dementia care.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPsWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study included only people with early-stage dementia who could consent in English, so severe dementia and non-English speakers were not represented. Remote recruitment may have excluded people without internet access or comfort using online platforms. Interviews were online or by telephone, so researchers could not analyse non-verbal cues, which are central to the topic. No formal cognitive, hearing or vision assessment was done before interviewing people with dementia. Transcripts were not returned to participants for feedback. The study reports experiences and preferences, not tested effects on pain.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest. Funding was from Aged Care Research & Industry Innovation Australia.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as evidence that these pain assessment or training approaches work. The study reported experiences and preferences, not tested outcomes.