Brussels, 16/10/2012 (Agence Europe) - One European out of every five suffers from chronic pain, and this kind of pain is experienced on a daily basis for one out of every eleven Europeans. Despite this situation, many sufferers do not receive appropriate treatment and are frequently off work, which has economic repercussions. These alarming figures were revealed on 12 October by Professor Hans Georg Kress, the president of EFIC, a European federation against pain, during the presentation of the “European Year against Pain” initiative. He declared “we want to shake up political decision-makers because pain, particularly chronic pain, not only causes personal suffering but also has a social and economic impact that is much greater than is often thought”. In 2012/2013, emphasis will be on visceral pain- pain that comes from the inner organs. The EFIC is intending to spotlight on an annual basis (from October to October) a syndrome or a theme linked to chronic pain, as part of the European Year against Pain initiative.
100 million people are affected by chronic pain in the 27 member states of the European Union. This is more than the total of those who suffer from heart disease, diabetes and cancer. Around 500 million workdays are lost every year in the EU due to this kind of pain, as well as €34 billion annually. 19% of patients suffering from moderate or severe pain have lost their jobs and the risk of having to change their profession is seven times higher for these sufferers than for people in good health. Despite the scale of the problem, only 2% of people are receiving treatment from a specialist in these pathologies and a third of them as not being treated at all. The reason for this treatment deficit is due to a chronic pain being quite simply considered as the symptom of the disease and not as a disease in itself, explains Professor Kress. Throughout the European Year against Pain 2012-2013, emphasis will be on visceral pain, which incorporates all kinds of pain relating to the heart, blood vessels, respiratory tract, urogenital tubes and the digestive system. This kind of pain can be very unpleasant and can even be life-threatening. Women are three times more often affected by this kind of pain than men, according to the statistics and at the moment there is no appropriate therapy for many of the different kinds of chronic pain. This year, the EFIC is hoping to lift the lid on this badly known and poorly understood kind of pain and provide information to patients affected by it by encouraging them to seek assistance from health professionals. The organisation also wants to give a boost to research in this area, because there are still many grey areas, particularly with regard to what triggers this kind of pain, how it is influenced by genetics and environment and why it particularly affects women. (IL/trans.fl)