Postoperative pain management for the cognitively impaired older adult.

Communication difficulties associated with cognitive impairment pose a serious threat to effective pain management. The purpose of this study was to describe how pain behaviors and the use of pain relief measures differ between postoperative cognitively impaired and cognitively intact older adults. Findings showed that cognitively impaired patients may be at greatest risk for undertreatment of pain during the initial postoperative period.