[The measurement of pain in patients with dementia: a review of the most appropriate tools]. / La misurazione del dolore nel paziente affetto da demenza: una rassegna degli strumenti più appropriati.

Pain is one of the most frequent symptom in elderly people with dementia and despite of this, it is still under-acknowledged and under-treated. The best approach to pain assessment is to evaluate it with the most appropriate scale. While in the elderly suffering mild-moderate cognitive impairment, it's possible to use self-report scales, in the elderly with severe cognitive impairment the use of observational scales is recommended. The objective of this review is to analyze the various types of pain assessment tools used in patients with cognitive impairment. Literature review was carried out through consultation of the most important bio-medical databases: Medline (PubMed), KT+, Trip Database, Cinahl, Cochrane Library, Embase. The keywords used were: "pain measurement", "pain assessment", "dementia", "validation study", "aged". All keywords were linked using AND and OR boolean operators. Altogether 5 self-report scales and 17 observational scales were retrieved, 7 of which available in Italian validated versions. The review analyzes potential and limitations of each assessment tool, in order to assist the clinician to make the most appropriate choice when using it in health care contexts.

[Institutionalized elderly and depression: a multicenter observational study]. / Anziano istituzionalizzato e depressione: uno studio osservazionale multicentrico.

Scientific literature recommends nurses to use the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) in the assessment of symptoms of depression among elderly with no cognitive deficits. The first purpose of this observational study was to determine the prevalence of depressive symptoms and the related antidepressant therapy in a sample of institutionalized elderly people administering the 30 questions GDS (GDS 30). The second aim was to estimate the time to complete the test. The survey is a cross-sectional multicenter study. 115 cognitively intact elderly residents in 5 retirement houses in the province of Vicenza (Italy) were administered the 30 items GDS by nursing staff: 80 females with a median age of 83 years (Inter Quartile Range RIQ: 80-85) and 35 males with a median age of 79 years (RIQ: 73-85). The prevalence of depression was 46% (95% Confidence Interval: 37-55%). The difference in depression between males and females was not significant (p=0.646). The median of the total answering time was equal to 306 seconds (RIQ: 257-315). The answering time of the GDS in people taking antidepressants is higher with respect to those who do not take them. The GDS 30 is an useful tool for nurses to identify in a fairly short amount of time institutionalised individuals with no cognitive deficit and risk of depression.

[A comparison study between two pain assessment scales for hospitalized and cognitively impaired patients with advanced dementia]. / Confronto fra due scale di valutazione del dolore in pazienti ospedalizzati affetti da grave demenza e non verbalizzanti.

The management of pain in a elderly patients with advanced dementia is a very frequently problem in geriatric wards. The pain in patients with advanced dementia whose verbal fluency is declining is underestimated and poorly treated and this is mainly due to the lack of availability of proper tools able to recognise and to assess this disease symptom in those patients. During recent years major progress has taken place, and valid scales that allow for the assessment of the pain also in those kind of patients have been developed. The objective of this research is to verify the pertinence of the PAINAD and ABBEY scales throughout the assessment of pain in a 30 resident patients in care of a geriatric setting. The thirty elderly were average age 86 years (18 female and 12 male) with vascular dementia or late stage Alzheimer's disease, completely dependant on ADLs and with global aphasia. After 48 hours from the acceptance to hospital the pain has been identified. The pain assessment was carried out by administering the PAINAD (already validate in italian) and ABBEY scales by the nurse responsible for the patient and by a second nurse, for an amount of four surveys for each patients. Results show that both scales give equivalent results for the pain assessment (K=0.68), with concordance asset moderately good between the exams taken by the two nurses (Cohen K rate between 0.49 and 0.58). The PAINAD scale requires an administering time far lower than the ABBEY scale (p 0.001) and both can be used for the assessment of pain in those patients, also in the hospital.