Study finds some pain sufferers unlikely to seek treatment

The AstraZeneca-supported study, which was published in the February issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings, looked at 3,575 people. Of the 2,211 respondents who reported pain of more than three months’ duration, 22.4% (497) stated that they had not informed their physician about their pain.

It is unclear whether the reasons for not seeking treatment are limited to minor impact of pain on the person, or for other reasons such as poor previous experiences with pain care, perceived lack of effective treatments, and barriers to health care; lack of medical insurance, for example.

In general, the location of the pain had little effect on whether the patients reported their pain. The study found that chronic pain suffers who do not seek treatment tend to be younger men whose pain has less impact on their usual activities.

Approximately 25% of ‘silent sufferers’, those not telling their physician about their pain, indicated at least moderate interference with both general activity and sleep. A larger proportion of vocal sufferers (43.2%) showed comparable levels of interference.

Increased media attention and physician education are recommended to decrease the number of ‘silent sufferers’, according to the study.

Dr Barbara Yawn, an Olmsted Medical Center physician and an author of the study, says, “Identification of patients in pain is essential to successful pain care. Despite significant efforts, successful pain care clearly is not happening. Physicians have a responsibility to ask their patients about chronic pain.”

Other researchers included Dr Emmeline Watkins from the Department of Epidemiology at AstraZeneca, Dr Peter Wollan from Olmsted Medical Center, and Dr Joseph Melton from Mayo Clinic. The study was supported by a grant from AstraZeneca.