In distress.

New study finds pain undermedicated

MANY WOMEN WITH SEVERE OSTEOARticular pain are not taking enough pain medication, suggests a study at the National Institute on Aging (NIA).

Researchers asked 1,002 women aged 65 and older to rate the pain in their lower back, hips, knees, and feet on a scale from zero to 10. They then collected data about the type and quantity of analgesic medication the women took to relieve the pain.

More than three-quarters (79 percent used medication such as acetaminophen, aspirin, and/or ibuprofen. But of the 49 percent of the women who experienced severe pain, 41 percent took less than the recommended dosage, and 13 percent took none at all.

Suffering through months of unrelieved pain can affect a person's ability to remain independent, says study author Jack Guralnik, MD, of the Epidemiology, Demography, and Biometry Program at the NIA in Bethesda, Maryland. "Certainly people that have pain have difficulty getting around, but chronic pain [that goes untreated] can lead to reduced social interaction and depression.