One in five Europeans is living in agonising pain, according to the results of a study released today.
The study, carried out by the International Association for the Study of Pain, says pain costs the European economy 500 million lost working days per annum, the equivalent of €34 million. Nineteen per cent of sufferers had lost a job due to their pain, the study says.
Mr Marit Lovig, a leading member of Norway's chronic pain Patients' Association, said: "Doctors and politicians need to listen to what patients are saying. We hope economic arguments will convince policymakers that patients are being failed by current provisions to deal with pain. More needs to be done to tackle pain head on."
The largest and most in-depth study of long-term chronic pain was unveiled this morning as part of European Week Against Pain.
Long-term pain can wreck family relationships: 34 per cent have their sex lives affected, 73 per cent find it more difficult to sleep at night and 26 per cent can't talk to their partner about their pain.
Forty three per cent of pain patients said their doctor would rather treat their illness - not their pain; 90 per cent of respondents had never had their pain evaluated using a pain scale and only 23 per cent had ever been referred to a pain specialist.
