Pain control for elderly patients in Japan

Today, approximately 25% of the Japanese population is over 60 years of age, and about 70% of patients who visit the Pain Relief Center, the University of Tokyo Hospital, are elderly (≥ 60 years). The main diseases causing pain in elderly patients include lower back pain and leg pain, post‐herpetic neuralgia, trigeminal neuralgia, and cancer. At our pain clinic, these painful conditions are treated with a variety of treatment modalities, including nerve block, sympathetic blockade, phototherapy, acupuncture, epiduroscopy, and pharmacologic treatment such as systemic and/or topical NSAIDs, opioids, antidepressants, anticonvulsants, vasoactive drugs, and local as well as general anesthetics. This paper briefly describes methods of pain control for these diseases, especially focusing on recently developed treatment modalities.