More than 20 per cent of older Australians aged 65 and over are living with chronic pain, and it’s having a devastating affect on their life and relationships. To make matters worse, most people are waiting an average of three years to get a diagnosis.
This week is National Pain Week, the annual awareness event for Australians living with chronic pain. Apart from the obvious physical issues chronic pain causes, it’s often the hidden psychological symptoms that cause the most long-term damage.
The 2024 National Pain Survey, conducted by advocacy group Chronic Pain Australia (CPA), questioned 2600 Aussies living with chronic pain and found the condition often “colours the world” of not just sufferers, but also their families.
What is chronic pain exactly?
Chronic pain is pain that lasts beyond the normal healing time after an injury or illness. It is a varied and complex condition, with many different causes. The pain experienced may be anything from a mild ache to constant agony.
More than 3.6 million Aussies are living with some form of chronic pain and your chances of suffering go up dramatically as you age. Government data shows that one in five people (20 per cent) aged 65 to 74 report living with chronic pain, increasing to 22 per cent of those aged 75-84 and 24 per cent of those 85 and above.
Older people with chronic pain are at an increased risk of falls and reduced mobility or disability. In turn, people who experience these events often experience more pain as a result.
For older people, chronic pain can hinder the ability to live an independent life.
Slow diagnosis making it worse
Adding to the distress facing people living with chronic pain, the survey found 45 per cent of all people – including almost 60 per cent of women asked – waited more than three years to get a diagnosis for their condition.
Since there often multiple root causes for chronic pain, effective treatment entails a multidisciplinary approach using a pain management specialist. But the survey showed only one in five people had been referred to such a specialist.
Crucially, 77 per cent of those who had been referred to a specialist said they had seen a noticeable improvement in their symptoms.
These types of delays and mismanagement can have a disastrous snowballing effect. People living in pain often have to cut back on hours worked, leading to a drop in income.
Sufferers also report worse mental health than average, with much higher incidences of depression and anxiety. This can lead to relationship breakdowns and social isolation.
Nicolette Ellis, chair of CPA, says the survey results show there is no cohesive approach to managing chronic pain, and that that needs to change.
“We know the well-evidenced solution: multidisciplinary pain management programs must be made widely available in primary care settngs,” she says.
“Eliminating the one to three year wait for tertiary pain management. This should be a priority for any government that wants to increase productivity and promote the well-being of its citizens.
“Chronic pain is taking far too long to diagnose, and multidisciplinary pain management, which offers the best hope for controlling this complex condition, remains largely inaccessible.”
Do you suffer from chronic pain? Have you ever seen a pain management specialist? Let us know in the comments section below.
Also read: Is joint pain inevitable?
