Sufferers of dementia ‘are enduring pain in silence’

MORE than a third of dementia patients in hospital endure the agony of injury and illness without pain relief as they cannot explain their suffering, according to a study.

Experts last night urged doctors to do more to identify those ‘suffering in silence’ on their wards.

The research, led by University College London, found that when dementia patients suffer intense pain it often triggers an episode of ‘delirium’, a state of acute confusion in which they usually lose the ability to communicate.

The researchers, whose work is published in the journal Age And Ageing, assessed 230 elderly dementia patients in two hospitals in north London. They found 35% of those they saw were delirious and unable to report their pain.

Of those, a third had previously reported experiencing pain at rest and 56% had experienced pain while moving. The odds of being delirious was three times higher among those in pain, the study found.

The researchers, funded by the Alzheimer’s Society, the terminal illness support charity Marie Curie and the Bupa Foundation, concluded pain triggered the delirium.

Researcher Dr Liz Sampson, of the Marie Curie palliative care research department at UCL, said: ‘Studies like this may help hospital staff provide better care now and in the future.’

There are an estimated 55,000 people with dementia in Ireland.