Accessibility Cookies Privacy notice GDPR
Select topic
Population Health Housing and accommodation Employment and Education Family Other topics
Select local authority
Aberdeen City Aberdeenshire Angus Argyll and Bute City of Edinburgh Clackmannanshire Comhairle nan Eilean Siar Dumfries and Galloway Dundee East Ayrshire East Dunbartonshire East Lothian East Renfrewshire Falkirk Fife Glasgow City Highland Inverclyde Midlothian Moray North Ayrshire North Lanarkshire Orkney Islands Perth and Kinross Renfrewshire Scottish Borders Shetland Islands South Ayrshire South Lanarkshire Stirling West Dunbartonshire West Lothian
Select health board
Ayrshire and Arran Borders Dumfries and Galloway Fife Forth Valley Grampian Greater Glasgow and Clyde Highland Lanarkshire Lothian Orkney Shetland Tayside Western Isles
Home / Our research / Determinants of health and inequalities research / Health care services / Pain medication and people with learning disabilities

Pain medication and people with learning disabilities


Background

Adults with intellectual disabilities experience increased multiple long-term health conditions often associated with pain symptoms. This is in addition to increased risk of pain from lifestyle factors, injury and reduced healthcare access.  Pain may be unrecognised due to cognitive and communication barriers and difficulties in health assessment.  Increased long term health conditions also increases the risk of multiple medications and adverse drug effects.

What we did

We reviewed information from studies around the world about medicine for pain and painful health conditions in adults with intellectual disabilities.

What we found 

We learned that adults with intellectual disabilities may not always get:

  • the same pain medicines as other people. 
  • any pain medicine when they need it.
  • medicine they need for health conditions. 

Carers and doctors can find it hard to tell if a person is in pain.   

What these findings mean 

These findings mean that adults with intellectual disabilities may not receive the same pain care as everyone else, and this is a health inequality. Everyone should have medicine for pain when they need it. 

You can read the full research paper via BMC Medicine Investigating pain-related medication use and contribution to polypharmacy in adults with intellectual disabilities: a systematic review 

If you have any questions about this research, please get in touch with Christine Pacitti via sldo-info@glasgow.ac.uk 

 

Easy read summary: Pain and adults with learning disabilities

View other information

Hospital admissions for physical conditions for people with learning disabilities Mental health and learning disabilities inpatient census 2014 & 2016 Trends in per capita expenditure on adult learning disability services across health boards and local authorities in Scotland, from 2012/13 to 2014/15 Management of long term health conditions amongst adults with learning disabilities in primary care settings Management of long-term conditions in primary health care for adults with learning disabilities compared with the general population Learning Disabilities and Black African families in the United Kingdom