Handbook of Pain and Aging (The Springer Series in Adult Development and Aging)

"From time to time, professional journals and edited volumes devote some of their pages to considerations of pain and aging as they occur among the aged in different cultures and populations. One starts from several reasonable assumptions, among them that aging per se is not a disease process, yet the risk and frequency of disease processes increase with ongoing years. The physical body's functioning and ability to restore all forms of damage and insult slow down, the immune system becomes compromised, and the slow-growing pathologies reach their critical mass in the later years. The psychological body also becomes weaker, with unfulfilled promises and expectations, and with tragedies that visit individuals and families, and the prospect that whatever worlds remain to be conquered will most certainly not be met with success in the rapidly passing days and years that can only culminate in death. Despair and depression coupled with infirmity and sensory and! or motor inefficiency aggravate both the threshold and the tolerance for discomfort and synergistically collaborate to perpetuate a vicious cycle in which the one may mask the other. Although the clinician is armed with the latest advances in medicine and pharƯ macology, significant improvement continues to elude her or him. The geriatric specialist, all too familiar with such realities, usually can offer little else than a hortative to "learn to live with it," but the powers and effectiveness of learning itself have declined"--Font no determinada Front Matter....Pages i-xii Front Matter....Pages 1-1 The Psychology of Pain and Suffering....Pages 3-18 A Brief History of Pain Perception and Pain Tolerance in Aging....Pages 19-35 Chronic Morbidity and Disability in the U.S. Elderly Populations....Pages 37-67 The Assessment of Pain in the Elderly....Pages 69-96 Nutrition, Disability, and Health in the Older Population....Pages 97-127 Managing Pain in the Institutionalized Elderly....Pages 129-151 Front Matter....Pages 153-153 Rehabilitating the Elderly in Return to Work....Pages 155-165 Coping with Pain in Old Age....Pages 167-184 The Role of Pain in the Cascade from Chronic Illness to Social Disability and Psychological Distress in Late Life....Pages 185-206 Pain and Psychological Function in Late Life....Pages 207-226 Hypnosis and Pain Relief for Older Persons....Pages 227-238 Front Matter....Pages 239-239 Management of Chronic Nonmalignant Pain in the Elderly....Pages 241-266 Cancer Pain in the Elderly....Pages 267-307 Pain in Osteoporosis and Paget’s Disease in the Elderly....Pages 309-319 Oral Facial Pain in the Elderly....Pages 321-346 Exercise in Aging and Pain Control....Pages 347-364 Behavioral Treatments for Pain Experienced by Older Adults....Pages 365-382 Back Matter....Pages 383-395 This comprehensive text examines the physical and mental repercussions of pain among the elderly, finding theoretical bases in such fields as dynamic psychology, psychophysics, behavior modification, pharmacology, and nutrition. The book covers the basic topics of biobehaviorism, psychosocial and psychodynamic aspects, and clinical techniques as they pertain to treatment of elderly patients. The authors of the book's 17 chapters are all esteemed specialists on particular aspects of pain and aging, and all provide state-of-the-science solutions to quality-of-life problems associated with the elderly For clinicians, theorists, administrators, and teachers, collects 17 articles on the combined problems of aging and pain. The contributors blend theory, data analysis, and experiences of clinical practice in their discussions of the assessment and management of pain in the institutionalized and outpatient elderly, rehabilitation, and hypnosis