A team of researchers at the University of Cordoba Department of Nursing recently identified a way to test saliva for signs that a person is feeling pain, something that may be helpful in managing care for people with dementia or communication issues that make it hard for a person to tell a caregiver they are in pain. The team’s work is described in European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience.
Pain comes with age, that much we know. But for older individuals with dementia, pain can be a particularly challenging issue to address. In severe or advanced dementia, in particular, people may have difficulties telling a caregiver that they are experiencing pain, adversely affecting their quality of life.
In the absence of being able to say that you are in pain, what can you do? Researchers sought to find a new way to help identify whether someone is experiencing pain, and the answer appeared in the form of saliva.
Specifically, the team looked at biomarkers in saliva that could offer indications of a person’s pain. The team compared saliva samples in people over 65 years old with moderate or advanced dementia and communication challenges and in people over 65 who did not have dementia. Specific biomarkers of interest to the team included sTNFR2 (Soluble Tumor Necrosis Factor Receptor 2) and SIgA (immunoglobulin A) pain biomarkers.
These biomarkers, in particularly, are biomarkers linked to both the inflammatory processes that are associated with dementia and with pain. Overall, researchers found that sTNFR2 was lower in patients with dementia compared to those without, highlighting how inflammation fluctuates, as well as an increase in SIgA, underscoring changes in how the immune system is functioning. These observations help not only indicate pain, but how pain works and changes in people with dementia.
The ability to detect these important biomarkers in saliva offers an important complement to diagnosing pain in people with dementia, particularly those with advanced disease and communication problems. It can work in tandem with other observational measures of pain, but as a minimally-invasive test, it can be easily collected with minimal interference to patients.
Sources: Science Daily; European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience
