Being a subjective symptom pain is highly variable between individuals and also variable in the same patient depending on the circumstances that accompany it, a proper assessment of pain is of high difficulty. Similarly, in cases where there are difficulties in communication with the patient (dementia, aphasia, impaired consciousness, etc.). The assessment of pain will be even more difficult, but equally important will continue treatment in an attempt to improve the quality of life of patients.
In young adults there are many pain assessment scales, but many of them are useless in geriatric patients because of its unique features: Many scales include impossible to complete long questionnaires by patients with any cognitive impairment or who feel tired easily. However, some simple scales have shown great utility for its validity and sensitivity in the detection and assessment of pain, such as the Visual Analogue Scale and Scale Numerical, Verbal Scale to evaluate pain or facial expression scales.
