2023-07-04 17:46:00
“An information gap is partly responsible for the delay in the diagnosis and therefore in the management of the patient with chronic pain”. These people “refer to having waited 6-7 months before turning to the pharmacist and about 2 years before seeking the help of a doctor. Finally, to have an effective diagnosis, it can take a further year. This means that to see having recognized his pathology, the patient suffering from chronic pain must wait 3 years from the onset of symptoms”. So Sara Carloni, Quantitative Research Director of Elma Research, today in Milan, presenting the data from the survey ‘Chronic pain in the population’ during the press conference to present the campaign ‘And you know what it feels like? It is possible to overcome pain, promoted by Sandoz with the patronage of Aisd (Italian Association for the Study of Pain), FederDolore – Sicd, Isal Foundation, Onda Foundation and Simg (Italian Society of General Medicine).
The survey – promoted by the Onda Foundation and by the National Observatory on women’s health and gender, with the unconditional support of Sandoz, and carried out by Elma Research – shows that “34% of the interviewees had suffered or still suffer from a pain that he defines as chronic – recalls Carloni – 23%, on the other hand, report having received a real diagnosis of chronic pain.Only 16% are satisfied with what they know about chronic pain, which means that 84 % of the sample deems information on the topic insufficient”, so much so that “55% would like to be able to receive practical and concrete information on how to behave in the event of chronic pain”. The survey, conducted on a sample of 600 Italians (300 men and 330 women) between 18 and 70 years old, also revealed a difference in incidence between genders. “It is slightly higher in the female population – Carloni points out – and the cause is to be found in the fact that the underlying pathologies determine chronic pain are more frequent in women, I am thinking for example of osteoarticular problems, primarily low back pain, rheumatic diseases – she adds – which we know are very present in the female population, and also fibromyalgia “.
The interviews also reveal that “64% of the sample, a percentage that also includes subjects who have never suffered from chronic pain themselves – explains the expert – believe that this disorder is a real pathology. This means that a large number of those interviewed recognize chronic pain as a disabling disease for the life of those who suffer from it, disabling on a psycho-physical level and which needs to find a cure”, concludes Carloni.
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