Il chronic pain it’s a debilitating condition affecting a large number of people in Italy. These are back pain, headaches, persistent muscle or bone pain, but also fibromyalgia, vulvodinia, neuropathic pain, which affects other parts of the body. So for a back pain you start to walk badly, for a cervical you have vertigo. Chronic pain can be triggered by a variety of conditionssuch as physical injuries or neurological disorders, but over time the link with the original pathology is lost and becomes a disease itself.
Despite the problem interests beyond the 28% of Italiansas noted by an investigation on the territoryis a theme often neglectedwhich remains hidden, because public attention seems to focus on more immediate and visible health issues.
Difference between chronic and acute pain
It is distinguished from acute pain, which has a limited duration and generally results from a specific disease or injury, because persists or repeats for more than 3-6 months. Affected persons describe it as a constant weight that affects them physically, psychologically and emotionally. This condition can limit the ability to carry out daily activities, compromise sleep, cause stress, anxiety and depression.
The awareness campaign
With the aim of informing citizens correctly, simply and directly about what chronic pain is, why it is important not to underestimate it and what can be done to overcome it, Sandoz has launched the campaign “And do you know what it feels like? You can overcome the pain. Protagonist of the initiative a ironic video played by the comic couple Corrado Nuzzo and Maria Di Biase (you can see it here and on the artists’ social profiles), which will hit Italian cinemas this autumn.
The choice of two comedians to convey a very serious, healthy content is a winning and increasingly widespread strategy, because, as Nuzzo and Di Biase themselves stated, «lComedy allows you to spread important messages in a light but effective way. And especially without trivializing real life situations. A joke stays in your head, it immediately leaves a mark, but it settles and, at a later time, it can also arouse a deeper reflection. We hope with our video to help spread the right not to suffer and cure chronic pain.
The information on the web page is also added to the video Health Choices and information materials that will be distributed in pharmacies from September. The campaign is carried out under the patronage of the Italian Association for the Study of Pain (Aisd), FederDolore-SICD, the Isal Foundation, the Onda Foundation and the Italian Society of General Medicine (Simg).
Chronic pain: delay in diagnosis
Why the need to launch such an initiative? Because as emerges from a survey carried out by Elma Research and promoted by the Onda Foundation, the national observatory on women’s health and gender, there is need more information. The analysis of the responses from the sample (600 men and women, aged between 18 and 70), shows that 34% have direct experience with chronic pain, but only 23% have received a specific diagnosis. Despite about 60% of those who experience it define it as severe pain, with scores over 7 on the Pain Rating Scale, capable of interfering with daily life and psycho-physical well-being.
“It is striking how late this disabling condition is recognized,” he comments Nicoletta Orthmann, medical-scientific coordinator of the Onda Foundation. «The patient waits about two years before turning to a reference figure, who is often the family doctor. And then they spend on average three years from the onset of symptoms to the actual diagnosis». In addition to the family doctor, people frequently also go to the pharmacist (33% of cases), who above all suggests taking medicines and on less occasions to go to a doctor.
Chronic pain: the effects of diagnostic delay
Diagnostic delay has a direct effect on the life of the sufferer of chronic pain, because it impacts on the therapeutic management of the pathology, on the physicality and on the psychology. The intensity of the stitches, very high for the majority of patients, greatly interferes with the psychological well-being (49%) and in the everyday life (working life, hobbies and daily habits 45%).
“AND fundamental let the pain come recognized and treated since its inception as part of a global management according to the diagnostic-therapeutic guidelines linked to the specific pain conditions», explains Maria Caterina Pace, professor of Anesthesia and Intensive Care, University of Campania L. Vanvitelli of Naples, and past president aisd.
Law 38
Il problem Italian remains accessibility to therapies for chronic pain which, being the health system organized at a regional level, is today more or less effective according to the different regions. Indeed, there is a law number 38, which has existed since 2010 to regulate and simplify access to pain management for all chronic patients. Of this right, however, few are aware of it and general practitioners often fail to refer patients to the right treatments.