Chronic pain: its treatment in geriatric and younger patients

The response of geriatric patients to a multidisciplinary chronic pain rehabilitation program was measured by comparing outcome data on 17 older patients (55 to 78 years) to data on 20 younger patients (29 to 48 years) treated in the same program. Pretreatment data were obtained at an initial evaluation, and posttreatment data were obtained at the most recent follow-up contact, usually at 12 months after treatment. Treatment outcome was assessed on the basis of eight quantitative measures: pain ratings; health care utilization; activity tolerance; daily "up time"; hours per week spent in paid employment, housework, volunteer work, or school; medication intake; SCL-90R somatization, depression, and anxiety scores; and an overall summary measure. Pretreatment data indicated that older and younger groups were similar on both demographic variables and clinical status. There was a larger percentage of women in the older group. The older patients were initially somewhat more impaired than the younger ones, with nearly four times the rate of health care utilization and almost two times higher medication intake. Both groups improved significantly from pretreatment to posttreatment on most of the eight measures. Older patients showed a greater decrease in health care utilization. Women and men did not respond differentially to treatment. The data indicated that geriatric patients can benefit from chronic pain rehabilitation programs at least as much as, if not more than, younger patients.