European Comparisons

A Widespread Problem
Pain is a devastating and widespread problem in Europe.

Chronic pain strikes one in five (19%) adults across Europe

Prevalence is highest in Norway, Poland and Italy, where just over one in four adults report suffering from chronic pain
Prevalence is lowest in Spain, even so more than one in ten (11%) suffers from chronic pain

Over one third of European households have at least one pain sufferer (chronic or otherwise).

Real Pain

Two-thirds of chronic pain sufferers experience moderate pain, while one-third experience severe pain (as rated on a 1-10 scale).

A Long Term Problem

Europeans with chronic pain have been suffering on average for 7 years, some for even longer than 20 (21%).
A third of people are suffering chronic pain at all times – 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
A third of sufferers were so weighed down with pain that they didn’t feel they could tolerate any worse.

Work and Social Life Ruined
Untreated chronic pain can leave sufferers’ lives in ruins – impacting on their work and families and often causing depression.

One in five chronic pain sufferers have lost a job as a result of their pain.
Those employed were forced to take more than 15 days off work every year because of the pain.
One in five chronic pain sufferers have been diagnosed with depression as a result of their pain

Spain has the highest rate of depression (29%) as a result of pain, followed by Norway (28%). The lowest rate is in Denmark (11%).

Over 40% of sufferers report feelings of helplessness or inability to think or function normally.
The problem of social isolation seems most acute in France where the greatest number of sufferers (39%) felt unable to discuss their pain with other people.

Pain Killer

Over one in six European chronic pain sufferers feel their pain is sometimes so bad they want to die.

Doctor / Patient relationships
Despite advances in the management of chronic pain, many patients still suffer unnecessarily due to inadequate evaluation, assessment and monitoring.

62% of European patients are satisfied with the doctor who treats their pain. Satisfaction with doctors was highest in Belgium (78%) and lowest in Poland, where only 20% or people were “extremely” or “very satisfied”.
And yet almost two-thirds report that their medication is inadequate at times and only one in ten have been evaluated on a pain scale.
Only 23% have ever been to a pain management specialist.
43% of chronic pain sufferers believe that their physicians are more focused on their illness then their pain.

Treatment of Pain
Chronic pain sufferers report that there is considerable room for improvement in the effectiveness of pain treatments.

On average NSAIDs are by far the most frequently used non-prescription pain medication (55%), together with paracetamol (43%) and weak opioids (13%).
Strong opioids (the strongest of all painkillers) are hardly used at all in Italy and Spain, whereas in Ireland, the UK and Denmark they are used more frequently (24%).
Finland made the greatest use of alternative treatments with 91% of chronic pain sufferers using one or more treatment, while Spain had the lowest with just 56% making use of such treatments.

Lack of Information

Magazines/newspapers and television are two leading sources of information on new pain treatments, with the internet not a widely used source. At 16%, pain sufferers in Denmark are the most likely to report using the Internet to learn about new treatments.