A pilot study of the relationship between discomfort and agitation in patients with dementia

People with dementia often have painful conditions that go unnoticed becaus e of their communication problems. Signs of pain in this population may inc lude agitation and observable behaviors associated with discomfort. Agitati on, discomfort, and severity of dementia were evaluated in 33 Veterans Affa irs nursing home patients using the Cohen-Mansfield Agitation Inventory, th e Discomfort Scale, and the Global Deterioration Scale, respectively. Findi ngs revealed statistically significant positive relationships between agita tion and severity of dementia (r = 0.34, P = 0.01), discomfort and severity of dementia (r = 0.44, P = 0.01), and agitation and discomfort (r = 0.50, P = 0.003). In a multiple regression analysis, agitation was significantly associated with discomfort (R-2 = .14, P = 0.02) after controlling for deme ntia severity. These preliminary findings suggest that discomfort may be a source of agitation.