What are the most common pains in the country?

Pain has been explored, studied and thought from such different fields as philosophy, psychology and medicine. The constant, in general, is usually the same: no one wants to feel it, and who does he complains.
Part of the concept of the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP for short) could be within the philosophical field: "Pain is always subjective," they say, but this does not prevent it can be a measurable and studiable phenomenon science.
In terms of duration, medicine believes that pain can be divided into two distinct categories: acute, which is timely and is usually related to a particular injury, and chronic, that is recurrent and extends over periods of months. Although other sources consider different classifications, IASP stipulates that there must be more than three months to be considered chronic.
With information from 2014 and published last year, the latest research of the Colombian Association for the Study of Pain (ACED, the Colombian chapter of the international group) analyzed the prevalence of this type of pain over the country, its impact on life people and how it is treated.
The study, carried out by Datexco and analyzed by anesthesiologists Marixa Aura Guerrero and Maria Patricia Gomez, gathered information from 1,583 people from 11 cities.
Among the many striking results (see box) are that 46% of people suffer chronic pain said-more than three months' duration-; 41% reported a severe intensity and 39% moderate; and 30% said it had not received any treatment for this.
Where does it hurt people?
The location of chronic pain of respondents (see box) is mostly musculoskeletal (64.5%), which follow him craniofacial (23.3%), abdominal pain (7.8%), chest and thorax (3.3%) and others, with smaller percentages.
"The prevalence of musculoskeletal pain in this age group (over 50% of respondents had more than 46 years of age) in our country is similar to the rest of the world," says Dr. Alejandro Upegui, anesthesiologist and coordinator specialization in anesthesiology at UPB. Add that together with the age the reasons may be associated with a sedentary lifestyle because this type of pain are isolating people progressively "as it hurts no way, as it hurts do not exercise, etc.," he explains .
The main features of chronic pain are that Colombian increases when moving or physical activity (63.7%), which is sharp (52.5%) and it feels like some sort of pressure (50.5%). And while 94.5% of people said that this treatment was based drugs, significant percentages of people claimed resort to home remedies (45.5%) and alternative medicine (29.7%) to relieve their pain.
If we assume that the drugs are effective, why additional treatments?
For Dr. Emilio Esteban González, chief of medical oncology at the Central University Hospital of Asturias, in Spain, although the issue is not a concern because most people resort to drugs, "that 50% look for other alternatives can indicate that they have not been properly diagnosed, or missing information to adequately treat pain. "
Gonzalez, specialized in oncology and is in town for a medical forum on the use of opioids to treat chronic pain, adds that as the cause of pain prevalence is different. "In chronic cancer pain) cancers, tumors, masses), for example, it is very high".
With that in mind, such as physiotherapy treatments should not be seen as an alternative, but a complement to medication.
Upegui adds that "many patients end their visit to the doctor usually pain" when sometimes a specialist may be necessary. "That condition of multiple treatments may be due to mismanagement of medical service," he says.
Another result of the study is striking is the 30% who said it had not received any treatment. To consider, research collected 48% of its data from a low socioeconomic status, 45% of the average and 7% high.
In this regard, Dr. Juan Pablo Vargas, medical director of Mundipharma in Colombia, said that the problem with chronic pain in the country is the difficulty in access to medicines to handle it.
Moreover, Upegui considered that "when difficulties in processes in health care are evaluated there are three elements to define why not proper care is received: ignorance against should be consulted, difficulties in economic conditions or displacement couple attend a consultation and is not given the necessary or appropriate care. A person with less economic possibilities might have difficulties in any of the three."
Other considerations
The pain has an emotional component. The last section of research examined how this pain affected various spheres of life of people. this in him respondents to rate from one to five (: all, five long one) was asked.
The work was the most affected by pain (both acute and chronic), where 34.8% responded that the degree of involvement was between four and five field. Among those who suffer chronically, 32.5% said they had ever been incapacitated by the problem in question, and in that group 72.7% indicated that failure was from 1 to 10 working days.
Other aspects such as emotional or sleeping hours were also affected, where 34.1% and 33.3% (respectively) of people said they had been affected very important or important way.
The least affected in this matter were sex life and self-care.
"Several studies indicate that controlled pain has a negative connotation in the quality of life of a patient, and does not allow it to develop its activities optimally," refers González.
To Upegui, the matter could go further, because talking about sexuality is affected can generate resistance. While "a significant percentage of the population is at an age where these other areas are in decline, we need to look at them in depth."
Why study the pain?
Since 2004 the World Health Organization (WHO) endorsed on 17 October as the World Day against pain, a celebration that seeks to highlight the need to find relief for suffering from diseases like cancer or AIDS.
On that occasion Harald Breivik, President of the European chapter of the IASP, said: "Chronic pain is one of the health problems most underrated in the world today despite having serious consequences on the quality of life of those who suffer because it is a major burden on health systems in the Western world. "
"Most people who suffer pain live in low- and middle-income where every day increases further the tax burden caused by chronic diseases" also he said Catherine Le Gales-Camus, assistant director of the Division of Mental Diseases and Noncommunicable the OMS.
Indeed, figures as of absenteeism by chronic pain not only regarding medical concerns but also those of governments and businesses. Added to this, the importance of self-care in this area (and low involvement by pain) may be relevant for anyone.
Upegui, but questioned whether the research was conducted on collected results of telephone way in a short time and without a history of those called, he said that the volume analyzed allows validation, and analysis of this type has a considerable impact. In his words, it should serve to build guidelines on the management of pain and a significant improvement in the subject, especially when "80% of normal medical consultation is pain."
Vargas stresses the importance of education, training and dissemination in this regard. "For example, common analgesics, which are available in any supermarket shelf, do not serve for proper treatment of chronic pain, people should not take more than five or six days these drugs. And yet, they do. "
Experts stress the importance of issues such as self-care, proper diagnosis and at all costs avoid self-medication.
Specialized in cancer patients where chronic pain is an issue with transverse components that pass through the physical, psychological and chemical, he adds: "With only a change we can substantially improve different aspects of quality of life of patients, helping to new to relate to society and regain their dignity. Pain can have, day by day, an impact on who we are".