Chronic Pain in Australia: Prevalence, Costs, and Treatment

This essay provides a comprehensive overview of chronic pain in Australia, highlighting its prevalence, causes, and impact on individuals, families, and the healthcare system. It presents key statistics, such as the percentage of adults affected and the rising costs associated with chronic pain, including healthcare expenses, productivity losses, and reduced quality of life. The essay explores major causes like lower back pain, headaches, joint pain, neuropathic pain, and cancer pain, while also discussing the financial burden and the psychological impact of chronic pain, including depression and anxiety. Furthermore, it examines the challenges faced by healthcare professionals and variations in treatment practices across different regions, emphasizing the importance of timely intervention and comprehensive pain management strategies. The essay concludes by emphasizing the importance of consulting doctors and taking proper medication to manage chronic pain and improve mental health.

Chronic Pain in Australia

TABLE OF CONTENTS
REFERENCES...........................................................................................................................5

Chronic pain and persistent pain often used interchangeably. The pain is held to be
chronic if it remains persist beyond a normal healing period of 3 months. It means ongoing
and doesn’t tells much about the severity of the pain. This pain puts a lot of burden over the
patient, their family along with the health care services and the community as a whole. This
essay presents some statistics of chronic pain in Australia which will help in understanding
the magnitude of this burden.
One in every five adults in Australia has reported persistent pain. These chronic pain
patients face long waiting in order to access the multidisciplinary services in the public
hospitals and this frequently takes up to more than a year and may be two years. This has led
to the deterioration in the quality of life of the people and reduction in the ability to return to
the work (Armour and et.al, 2019). There are five major causes of chronic pain. First is lower
back pain, in Australia evidence indicates that the lower back pain causes people to stop
working and retire prematurely which leads to the low levels of income among the older
people and putting them at the risk of poverty. Second is chronic headaches and migraines,
which is the most common complaint in Australia. If the headache remains for at least 15
days/month and for at least 3 months then it will be termed as chronic daily headache. Third
is joint pain, which might include osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis and repetitive strain
injuries. Among these the most common is osteoarthritis which rising higher which increases
the risk of obesity. Fourth is neuropathic pain, which is emerging as an immediate outcome
of an injury or infection influencing the somatosensory system. This can affect the peripheral
or the central nervous system. And the last is cancer pain (Savvas and Gibson, 2016). In
cancer patients, the pain is the most feared symptoms despite the major therapy available the
main pain remains the major problems. In 2015, an estimated 9.5 million people in Australia
Approximately 40% had a long-term condition with the arthritis and back pain which has
affected people around 2 million. Also, it has been evidenced that ½ of all chronic diseased
people have disability.
In 2018, 3.24 million Australians lived with the burden of chronic pain out of which
53.8% is women, which is expected to rise to 5.23 million by 2050. Also, 44.6% lives with
the depression and anxiety as well (Liu and et.al, 2018). In the last 12 months, the patients
visited health care clinic every week on an average for the pain, 75% of them were of
working age, 26% were employed. Also, the large proportion of it reported depression of
37% and anxiety of 25% and along with that 63% of them were using opioid medications.
After the multidisciplinary pain treatment, there has been a 35% reduction in the healthcare
utilization, 57% people reported improvement in their depression and 41% in their anxiety.
And almost half of all the patients has been able to reduce their opioid dose by 50% or more.
The financial cost associated with chronic pain in Australia in 2018 was estimated to
be $139.3 billion which comprises of $12.2 billion in health system costs, $48.3 in
productivity losses, $66.1 billion in reduction in the quality of life and the remaining $12.7
billion in other financial costs (Ahern and et.al, 2019). The per person cost of pain was
estimated to be $22,790.
The chronic pain has impacted the personal life of people mostly the young adults
with four in five people, aged between 20-24 years with chronic pain. Almost one in three
adults with severe pain are facing the high level of psychological distress. Also, the rate of
depression has increased 4 times among the people with chronic pain. The prevalence and

complexity of the pain is the huge challenge for the health professionals working in primary
care. The treatment practices across Australia varies (Economics, 2019). People living in
provincial and remote territories tend to experience higher rate of pain management because
of decreased access to proper pain management interventions. There are approximately
65.6% Australians in urban areas suffering from chronic areas in comparison to 34.4% in
regional areas.
Thus, it can be said that the chronic pain has affected the lives of the Australian
people. The only way to fight is by timely consulting the doctor and taking proper medication
and involving in other activities to divert the mind from thinking about it which will help in
dealing with mental health.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Ahern, M. and et.al, 2019. The experiences and needs of people seeking primary care for
low-back pain in Australia. Pain Reports. 4(4).
Armour, M. and et.al, 2019. The cost of illness and economic burden of endometriosis and
chronic pelvic pain in Australia: A national online survey. PloS one. 14(10).
Economics, D. A., 2019. The cost of pain in Australia. Australia: PainAustralia.
Liu, T. and et.al, 2018. Disease burden and productivity cost of chronic rhinosinusitis patients
referred to a tertiary centre in Australia. Australian Journal of Otolaryngology. 1(1).
Savvas, S. M. and Gibson, S. J., 2016. Overview of pain management in older adults. Clinics
in geriatric medicine. 32(4). pp.635-650.