Epidemiology of chronic pain - an investigation in 5 medical practices

Background and methods: The aim of this study was to get more information a bout the prevalence of chronic pain in different practices of home physicia ns. 900 patients of five different specialists (general medicine, internal medicine, neurology, orthopaedics, surgery) in the german town Bochum were investigated with a questionnaire about chronic pain. Chronic pain was defi ned as a continuous or intermittend pain of longer duration than six months . Results: 36% (328 patients) of all investigated patients had chronic pain d ue to this definition, twice more women than men. The four most frequent lo calisations of chronic pain were the back, the head, the joints and the leg s. 15% of the patients with chronic pain were retired or going to retire du e to their chronic pain. Orthopaedics were the most frequent physicians vis ited in the past. Only 5% of the patients had a psychological therapy and o nly 1% were treated in a pain clinic. The primary treatment strategies of t he chronic pain were physiotherapy and drug therapy. 30% of the patients di d not have any pain relieve by the past treatment strategies. Conclusion: Patients with chronic pain are a frequent and important problem in practices of home physicians. The high frequency of patients with chron ic pain in practices of specialists demonstrates the necessity of a special qualification also on this level of our medical system.