Dual Experience and Management of Pain in Older Adults and Their Caregivers

This article presents an overview of the dual experience of pain in older adults and their caregiving relatives. Guided by the biopsychosocial model of chronic pain for older adults, we describe the major risk factors for pain in later life and consider the interpersonal consequences of pain for caregiving dyads. We discuss caregivers' role in pain assessment and management and consider how caregivers' own pain may impact their caregiving abilities and responses to their care recipients' pain. We advocate for dyadic approaches to pain management and present novel opportunities to promote uptake of dyadic pain interventions in clinical practice.