Prevalence, causes, and treatment of neuropathic pain in dutch nursing home residents: a retrospective chart review
Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 07/27/2012
van Kollenburg EGP et al. – Dutch nursing home residents frequently experience neuropathic pain; therefore, neuropathic pain should receive more attention in frail elderly adults.
Methods- A descriptive, retrospective, cross–sectional study conducted by analyzing medical records.
- Data were collected in 12 Dutch nursing homes.
- The data were derived from the medical records of 497 residents of chronic long–term stay and rehabilitation nursing home units.
- Four groups were defined: actual (at some time in the previous year) neuropathic pain (ANP), possible neuropathic pain (PNP), neuropathic pain in the past (NPP), and no signs of neuropathic pain (NoNP).
- The prevalence of ANP was 10.9% (95% confidence interval (CI) = 8.4–13.8%) and of PNP was 5.6% (95% CI = 3.9–7.9%).
- The most common causes were CPSP and phantom limb pain.
- In the subgroup with diabetes mellitus, 6.3% had nonpainful diabetic polyneuropathy, 0.7% had painful diabetic polyneuropathy, and 0.7% had possible painful diabetic polyneuropathy.
- In the poststroke subsample, 4.7% were identified as having CPSP, and 5.2% were identified as possibly having CPSP.
- Within the ANP group, 68.5% of the residents received antineuropathic drugs on the day the medical records were examined; 48.1% used anticonvulsants.
