Identifiering och bedömning av smärta hos personer med demens : En litteraturstudie

With age the risk of developing dementia increases. A great challenge for health care is to identify pain in people with dementia. It can be difficult to identify pain in people with dementia because these people have more difficulty expressing themselves. The purpose of this study was to summarize existing knowledge on the identification and assessment of pain in people with dementia. This literature review was an integrated systematic review and through a systematic search both quantitative and qualitative articles were selected for inclusion in the analysis. Selected articles were analyzed based on the questions: What painful expression has been identified in people with dementia? What tools are available for assessing pain in people with dementia? Expressions for pain was analyzed by deductive and inductive approach. The result was that painful expression was divided into the American Geriatrics Society (AGS) six categories; Facial Expression, painful sound, body language, behavior, changing routines and altered mental state. Tools for assessment of pain were divided into two categories; Pain assessment tools and clinical experience. This generated a synthesis in which clinical experience was the only tool that touched all areas of pain. The conclusion is that pain can be experienced differently in people with dementia and that there are several tools to assess pain. Further research is needed to develop a comprehensive pain assessment scale, so that the pain in people with dementia can be identified and adequate painrelief to relieve suffering.Validerat; 20150412 (global_studentproject_submitter