Significance: Chronic pain is a significant global health, economic and social problem. In Australia, the disease burden of chronic pain has been documented in a rigorous epidemiological study of 17,544 respondents. In this study, chronic pain was reported in 17% males and 20% of females, being strongly associated with having poor self-rated health, with being unemployed for health reasons and with high levels of psychological stress. Respondents in the working age group were proportionately most likely to report interference with daily activities due to pain, which affected 76% males and 84% females in the 20–24 years age group Overseas studies are broadly in keeping with these data. A study of older age group Australians revealed a chronic pain prevalence of 51% in the 65–74 age group, rising with age . The humanitarian and financial burden of unrelieved persistent pain are very large and include;medical and social welfare costs to the individual, costs of litigation, lost working days and reduced work efficiency (estimated at >36.5 million lost work days equivalent over workers without chronic pain in Australia, and the costs of inappropriate surgery and medications and prolonged hospitalisation. It has been estimated that the total cost in Australia is in excess of $10 bn per annum (NHMRC 1999). A recent report in the workers compensation system in NSW attributed a large amount of the $2 bn deficit in the NSW health system to persistent pain. Such costs continue to rise exponentially
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