Chronic pain
Prevalence of chronic pain
The Pain in Europe survey1 revealed the truly shocking nature, prevalence and impact of chronic pain in Europe and its devastating human, economic and social impact.
In a nutshell, the survey revealed that nearly one in five adults in Europe suffers from chronic pain. Of these, 35% experienced pain every day of their lives and 16% said that some days the pain was so bad that they wanted to die. For 26%, the pain had affected their careers.
- 28% of sufferers said they didn’t think their doctor knew how to control their pain.
- The average duration of chronic pain is 7 years and one fifth had been in pain for at least 20 years.
- Only 23% had been referred to a pain management specialist.
- Most strikingly, 40% had not achieved adequate pain control.
- 21% were diagnosed with depression because of pain.
- 19% of people had lost their job due to pain.
Figure 1: Prevalence of chronic pain among 46,394 adults (>18 years) in 16 European countries responding to a computer-aided telephone screening interview. Chronic pain was defined as pain lasting more than 6 months and rated in intensity as five or greater on a one (no pain) to 10 (worst pain imaginable) numeric rating scale.
References:
1) Breivik H, Collett B, Ventafridda V, et al. Survey of chronic pain in Europe: prevalence, impact on daily life, and treatment. Eur J Pain 2006; 10:287-333.