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Assessing Pain Processing in Older Adults: What is Necessary and What Works Best?

Description: The burden of chronic pain disproportionately impacts older adults, yet pain processing in older individuals remains a neglected topic of research. This interactive workshop provides participants with practical, evidence-based training in the assessment of pain processing in older adults. As aging may alter both pain perception and expression differently, conventional assessment tools often fall short. Through a series of hands-on stations, participants will learn to tailor verbal and non-verbal assessment methods to older persons, integrating behavioral indicators of pain and cognitive screening into their evaluations. The workshop also offers in-depth guidance on adapting quantitative sensory testing (QST) protocols for older individuals, as well as exploring more dynamic experimental pain protocols suited to this older population. This hands-on workshop bridges clinical insight with methodological rigor—equipping attendees with the skills to assess clinical pain by geriatric pain interview and questionnaires as well as sensitivity to pain more accurately by adapted experimental measures in aging individuals.

Intended Audience: Clinical Practice, Cross-disciplinary, Clinical Research, Basic Science, Trainee, Other

Theme: Other

Educational Objectives:

select appropriate verbal and non-verbal pain assessment methods tailored to older adults
administer quantitative sensory testing (QST) and other pain assessment protocols adapted for older populations
evaluate the cognitive status of older individuals as part of the assessment process

Please provide the title of each station.: 1. Tailoring pain assessment for Older Adults
2. Recognizing and Interpreting Behavioral Indicators of Pain in Older Adults
3. Assessing Comorbidities in Aging and Pain: Focus on Cognitive Function
4. Quantitative Sensory Testing in Older Adults
5. Dynamic Experimental Pain Paradigms for Aging Populations

Key Insight Per Station: 1. Tailoring pain assessment for Older Adults
This station demonstrates how to select and apply validated pain assessment tools for older populations, ranging from self-report scales, questionnaires to interview techniques.

2. Recognizing and Interpreting Behavioral Indicators of Pain in Older Adults
Participants will gain practical skills in identifying non-verbal signs of pain, such as facial expressions, body language, and vocalizations altered in advanced age, using standardized observational tools and guided coding exercises based on real-time and video data.

3. Assessing Comorbidities in Aging and Pain: Focus on Cognitive Function
This station highlights the importance of cognitive screening in pain assessment in older individuals, offering hands-on experience with brief tools like the MoCA, MMST, DemTect and teaching communication strategies for working with cognitively impaired older adults.

4. Quantitative Sensory Testing in Older Adults
Attendees will learn how to adapt QST protocols—thermal, mechanical, and pressure-based—to age-related sensory changes, with emphasis on safety, reliability, variability, and step-by-step procedural guidance.

5. Dynamic Experimental Pain Paradigms for Aging Populations
This station presents more dynamic experimental pain protocols tailored to older individuals, focusing on paradigms such as conditioned pain modulation (CPM) and temporal summation of pain (TSP), while addressing age-specific considerations (e.g. attentional load).

Speakers

Stefan Lautenbacher University of Bamberg, University of Augsburg
Germany

Stefan Lautenbacher is Professor Emeritus of Physiological Psychology at the University of Bamberg, Germany, and currently serves as a Senior Consultant at the University of Augsburg. His research focuses on the psychophysiology of pain, with particular emphasis on age-related changes in pain perception, endogenous pain modulation, sex, gender and pain, facial expression of pain, and the interaction between psychological and physiological mechanisms of pain. He has published extensively in the fields of experimental pain research and behavioral medicine and has made significant contributions to advancing the understanding of pain across the lifespan.

Miriam Kunz University of Augsburg
DE

Miriam Kunz is Professor and Department Head of Medical Psychology at the University of Augsburg, Germany. Her research focuses on pain assessment and pain communication, with a particular emphasis on nonverbal expressions of pain, pain in older and vulnerable populations, and the psychological mechanisms underlying pain perception and interpersonal pain communication. Her work combines experimental, clinical, and translational approaches to improve the assessment and management of pain across diverse patient groups. She has published extensively in the fields of pain research and behavioral medicine.

Michael Owens University of Alabama at Birmingham
USA

Dr. Michael A. Owens is a clinical psychologist and Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). Dr. Owens' research examines the relationships between pain, sleep, and cannabis/substance use, using multi method approaches to better understand mechanisms and identify novel targets for intervention. Dr. Owens' is Director of the Chronic Pain Psychology Clinic where he provides clinical care to a diverse population of patients which chronic pain while training and supervising trainees. Dr. Owens' work bridges clinical practice, translational research, and education, with the goal of advancing patient-centered approaches to chronic pain assessment and treatment.

Lene Vase Aarhus University
Denmark

Lene Vase is Professor of Psychology and Placebo Effects at Aarhus University. She holds a PhD in Psychology and a higher doctoral degree in Medicine.
Her research focuses on understanding the psychological and neurobiological mechanisms underlying placebo and nocebo effects, particularly in chronic pain and neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.
More recently, her research on placebo mechanisms has contributed to improved approaches for testing and understanding the relative contributions of specific and non-specific treatment components in both pharmacological and non-pharmacological clinical trials. This work has been supported by national research councils and the Lundbeck Foundation.
Lene Vase has published more than 150 scientific articles, including papers in leading journals such as The Lancet, The Lancet Neurology, and The BMJ. Her research has had a substantial impact on the field, as reflected in a field-weighted citation impact of 2.6.
She has served as an Associate Editor for PAIN, as a member of the Scientific Research Committee for the World Congress on Pain, and is part of the steering committee of the Placebo Special Interest Group. She has established a broad international network of collaborators, including researchers at Harvard Medical School.
In addition, Lene Vase has delivered more than 100 presentations at international meetings and conferences, and her research has been featured in major international media outlets, including The New York Times, The International Herald Tribune, and Der Spiegel.

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