The global occurrence of chronic pain: an introduction

Abstract This chapter begins with a brief review of studies that explore chronic pain as a public health problem. It then discusses the prevalence of self-reported chronic pain, prevalence of chronic pain based on health care data, global burden of chronic pain, and time trends of pain in populations. Population surveys suggest that self-reported chronic pain occurs to a similar extent in many parts of the world. Chronic pain is emerging as an important component of the global burden of disability. Musculoskeletal pain and headaches dominate in terms of frequency and overall impact, but the more severe end of the spectrum is mostly about multiple pains. There is evidence that the reporting of chronic pain has increased in recent decades.