One in five suffer chronic pain

Monday, 13 October 2003 12:00 AM

One in five Europeans lives in constant pain, according to a new study.

Up to 15 million people on the continent are contemplating suicide to escape the agony and around 500 million working days are lost annually as a result of chronic pain, costing the European economy £24 billion.

The Pain in Europe study, unveiled as part of European Week Against Pain, found that almost half of those suffering from chronic pain are less than 50 years old.

In the UK, one in seven people are in constant pain, caused by a variety of ailments, including arthritis and muscle problems.

Pain management experts say not enough is being done to tackle pain and offer treatment to sufferers.
The survey involved interviews of more than 46,000 people in 12 countries.

The most common type of pain was back pain, according to the report, and the most common cause arthritis.

The study's authors claimed that a fifth of all chronic pain sufferers endured agony for 20 years before receiving the relief they needed, while one in five sufferers had lost their job as a result of their condition and over a third claimed their sex lives had been affected.

Dr Beverly Collett, president of the UK's Pain Society and a consultant in pain management at University Hospitals Leicester, said: "Not enough is being done to manage chronic pain an the isolation it causes.

"Doctors and politicians need to listen to what patients are saying."

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