Paliatívna medicína a liečba bolesti 3/2011

Frailty syndrome and pain – is the pain treatment by opioids in Frailty syndrome safe?

Frailty syndrome is a physiologic syndrome characterized by decreased reserve and resistance to stressors, resulting from cumulative decline across multiple physiologic systems, and causing vulnerability to adverse outcomes. It includes common signs and symptoms as fatigue, weith loss, muscle weakness, progressive decline in function and persistant pain. Frailty is an exciting area of research that opens a complete new perspective of the possibility of better understanding of aging and health in older persons. Beyond the many controversies, the operational definition of frailty is ready to be translated into clinical practice for the identification of patients who need intensive and „holistic“ care. The possibility of identifying interventions that reduce the burden of frailty in older persons is hampered by our poor understanding of the biological basis of this age – associated syndrome, including pain as a most common sign.. Pain in frail older patients should be managed in an interdisciplinary environment using pharmacolologic and nonpharmacologic interventions including opioids whose main goals are decreasing suffering and improving quality of life.

Keywords: Frailty syndrome, multisystem decline, suffering, pain relief by using opioids.