Search

The 10-point pain scale was developed to avoid undertreated pain in the hospital setting. Developed in a Veterans Administration hospital for medical–surgical patients in 2003, the 10-point pain scale was adopted in health care as part of the "pain as the fifth vital sign" initiative. The pain scale was implemented in maternity care as part of a general hospital initiative. Assessing coping is more appropriate to the labor process than focusing on pain or its avoidance. The Farver–Campos Labor Coping Scale is evidence-based and promotes vaginal birth and personal labor care by guiding nurses and laboring women through a number of coping options. The scale is an appropriate tool to replace the 10-point pain scale in the maternity care setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Study Design: Retrospective observational study.Objective: Opioid Analgesic Therapy (OAT) and Spinal Manipulative Therapy (SMT) are evidence-based strategies for treatment of chronic low back pain (cLBP), but the long-term safety of these therapies is uncertain. The objective of this study was to compare OAT versus SMT with regard to risk of adverse drug events (ADEs) among older adults with cLBP.Summary Of Background Data: We examined Medicare claims data spanning a 5-year period on fee-for-service beneficiaries aged 65 to 84 years, continuously enrolled under Medicare Parts A, B, and D for a 60-month study period, and with an episode of cLBP in 2013. We excluded patients with a diagnosis of cancer or use of hospice care.Methods: All included patients received long-term management of cLBP with SMT or OAT. We assembled cohorts of patients who received SMT or OAT only, and cohorts of patients who crossed over from OAT to SMT or from SMT to OAT. We used Poisson regression to estimate the adjusted incidence rate ratio for outpatient ADE among patients who initially chose OAT as compared with SMT.Results: With controlling for patient characteristics, health status, and propensity score, the adjusted rate of ADE was more than 42 times higher for initial choice of OAT versus initial choice of SMT (rate ratio 42.85, 95% CI 34.16-53.76, P < 0.0001).Conclusion: Among older Medicare beneficiaries who received long-term care for cLBP the adjusted rate of ADE for patients who initially chose OAT was substantially higher than those who initially chose SMT.Level of Evidence: 2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The movement of evidence-based interventions into institutional settings such as nursing homes is challenging. Among ecopsychosocial interventions to address behavioral problems of nursing home residents with dementia, Music and Memory, a popular intervention that provides individualized music listening, has shown potential to improve residents' quality of life. In Wisconsin in the USA, the Music and Memory program has been implemented in nursing home facilities statewide. In the present study, to examine facilitators and barriers related to implementation and sustainability of the Music and Memory program, all nursing homes in Wisconsin were invited to participate in a survey (online or mail). A total of 161 facilities participated, representing a response rate of 41%. Descriptive statistics and content analysis were conducted. Over 80% of responding facilities were providing the Music and Memory program, and 86% of those facilities planned to continue its use. The majority of respondents found Music and Memory to be beneficial to residents, but they also reported that the program was not equally effective for everyone and that it was time and labor intensive. Barriers to sustainability included lack of buy-in by direct care staff, use of technology, costs of equipment, inconsistency of volunteers, and families not supportive or helpful. Facilitators included support of facility personnel, family, and volunteers; observing positive effects of program; Music and Memory training provision and support; and accessibility of equipment. For the program to be successful, facilities must identify the residents most likely to benefit from it, realistically estimate its costs and required labor, and ensure staff buy-in.

Insomnia in the elderly is a prevalent condition that poses treatment challenges to practitioners across medical fields. There are many behavioral and other nonpharmacological therapies, 18 Food and Drug Administration-approved pharmacotherapies, and numerous off-label, over the counter and alternative treatments. Most reviews on this subject focus either on pharmacological treatments or behavioral treatments. The authors provide a combined review of available pharmacological and nonpharmacological treatments. The authors narratively reviewed each treatment from our literature search, tabled results with the highest level of available evidence on 5 major sleep outcomes and evaluated these results for clinical significance. The authors also evaluated the safety of pharmacotherapies within the context of the 2019 Beers Criteria for Potentially Inappropriate Medications in the Elderly. The authors found the most rigorous evidence supporting Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia as a first-line treatment option, with longer lasting therapeutic effects than treatment with pharmacologic agents alone. The authors also found evidence of similar outcomes from other behavioral interventions, such as Brief Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia and relaxation training. The authors found 4 studies, 2 on relaxation training, 1 on sleep restriction, and 1 on stimulus control limited to the elderly with clinically significant results. The authors found no pharmacological studies limited to the elderly on treatments not contraindicated by Beers criteria with clinically significant results. The authors discussed the challenges of determining clinical significance in sleep studies, the lack of studies restricted to the elderly, and the role of placebo effect., (Copyright © 2020. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Objective: The aim of this study was to compare the efficacy of two approaches: multicomponent interventions that focus on working with the carer and dyadic interventions that work with both the carer and the person with dementia., Method: A systematic review involving a search of Medline, EMBASE, and PsycINFO in October 2015 was performed. Randomized controlled trials involving carers of people with dementia and comparing multicomponent interventions with usual care were included., Results: Pooling of all studies demonstrated that multicomponent interventions can reduce depressive symptoms, improve quality of life, reduce carer impact, and reduce behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia as well as caregiver upset with these symptoms. We were unable to find a significant difference in the effects of dyadic interventions in comparison with carer focused interventions for these outcomes., Discussion: Although effect sizes associated with intervention are small, multicomponent interventions are relatively inexpensive to deliver, acceptable, and widely applicable.