Chronic pain sufferers back at work after course

Pain management: Over half of the chronic pain sufferers attending a pain management programme returned to work or training following the completion of the four-week intensive programme at the Adelaide, Meath and National Children's Hospital, Tallaght.

Results from the first audit of the Ulysses Pain Management Programme in Tallaght released yesterday also found participants improved their levels of physical activity and function and were less anxious and depressed about their pain. A six-month follow-up of patients found these positive changes were maintained.

Commenting on the findings, Dr Camillus Power, director of the programme, said, "This is the first Irish- based audit of a pain management programme and it reflects the international evidence base for this approach. The fact that such a high number of patients experienced improvements in the areas measured and also that over 50 per cent returned to work or training is very positive.

"These personal health gains by the participants should also be seen in the context of the socio-economic cost of chronic pain. Figures from 2002 estimate that the State pays €1 million a week in disability payments on back pain alone," he added.

Pain management programmes, which are deemed to offer the best hope to patients with chronic pain conditions such as lower back pain, migraine and musculo-skeletal problems, are available only in St Vincent's University Hospital, Dublin and the Adelaide, Meath and National Children's Hospital, Tallaght. They have been developed for patients who underwent medical and/or surgical interventions without significant benefit.

Pain specialists, who will meet later this week in Dublin at the Irish Pain Society's multidisciplinary conference on the management of the pain patient, are keen to see the development of pain management programmes on a regional level. Dr Declan O'Keefe, director of pain services at St Vincent's University Hospital, Dublin and president of the Irish Pain Society, said: "Patients will have exhausted all orthodox treatments in the community and approximately 60 per cent of patients will have seen complementary medicine therapists before they come to our pain service."

The call for expansion of pain management programmes is part of an overall campaign by pain specialists and the chronic pain patient action group, Positive Pain Power, for a National Pain Strategy. "There is need for recognition of the devastating effects of chronic pain on the lives of sufferers by those at government, hospital and community health level," said Sandra Orr, a spokeswoman for Positive Pain Power. The patient action group believes delays in access to pain treatments of choice often unnecessarily lengthens the time sufferers have to deal with their pain.