Half of us may live with chronic pain. There's no need to suffer in silence, says Sylvia Thompson
'Don't suffer in silence" are the words that loom large on an information leaflet for people with chronic pain and their families. It seems to be a message many of them have ignored in the past, according to the first national survey of chronic pain.
The study, which surveyed patients of 200 medical practices, found that half of all those who had come to see their GPs that day suffered from chronic pain. Only one in four patients surveyed was consulting their doctor about the pain, however.
"The overall incidence of 50 per cent of patients reporting pain is rather high. However, more critical analysis of the definition of chronic pain is required," says Dr Roisin MacSullivan, a consultant anaesthesist at the Mater-Misericordiae Hospital in Dublin and president of the Irish Pain Society.
According to EFIC, the European branch of the International Association for the Study of Pain, chronic, unrelieved pain is one of Europe's major unsolved healthcare problems.
Chronic pain is generally defined as pain that lasts for more than three months. Unlike acute pain, which is the result of trauma or surgery, chronic pain may not be directly related to an injury or disease.
This kind of pain also involves a more complex set of physical and psychological symptoms, including disturbed sleep, dependence on medication, poor performance at work and isolation. The commonest types of chronic pain are those in the back, neck, shoulder and head, as well as that caused by arthritis.
All of Ireland's principal teaching hospitals have pain clinics.
"There is a greater awareness of the expertise available and appropriate referrals," says Dr MacSullivan. "The best approach to chronic pain is a multidisciplinary one, with input from physiotherapists, occupational therapists, psychologists and psychiatrists. Drug therapy is not always a first-choice treatment. It may be tried, but even the most potent opiates" - strong painkillers - "are not necessarily effective even in severe pain conditions."
A pain-management approach is also recommended by Dealing With Chronic Pain (Onstream Publications), a book by Cork-based anaesthetist Dr Jack Barrett, physiotherapist Marna Carey and psychologist Gillian Moore-Groarke. They cover relaxation and visualisation techniques for dealing with chronic pain; exercise; posture; drug therapies; and complementary therapies, such as acupuncture, electrotherapy and osteopathy.
You can get more information on dealing with chronic pain from www.efic.org