Pain Management With the Elderly

Course overview

Two trends underline the importance of pain management for the elderly: the steadily aging demographics and the growing recognition that mind and body are no longer considered a dichotomy, but are interdependent. Psychotherapists and physicians both have come to understand that effective pain management involves more than pharmacological interventions and that somatic complaints, especially those with medically unexplained causes, should not be dismissed as just something in people's heads. In this 3 CE intermediate level course comprised of four text articles, part one discusses pain management for the elderly related to specific medical or mood disorders - arthritis, depression, anxiety and complicated grieving. Part two discusses pain management in senior residential centers. Additional resources and references are provided for further study, but they are not part of the course.