Consequences of Chronic Non-Cancer Pain in adulthood. Scoping Review

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To examine and map the consequences of chronic pain in adulthood. METHOD: Documents addressing the impact of chronic pain on the psychological and social spheres of people suffering from chronic pain, published in Spanish and English between 2013 and 2018, were included. Those who addressed pharmacological treatments, chronic pain resulting from surgical interventions or who did not have access to the full text were excluded. Finally, 28 documents from the 485 reviewed were included. RESULTS: Studies show that pain is related to high rates of limitation in daily activities, sleep disorders and anxiety-depression spectrum disorders. People in pain have more problems to get the workday done and to maintain social relationships. Chronic pain is also associated with worse family functioning. CONCLUSIONS: This review shows that limitations in the ability to perform activities of daily living, sleep, psychological health, social and work resources and family functioning are lines of interest in published articles. However, knowledge gaps are detected in areas such as the influence of having suffered pain in childhood or adolescence, the consequences of non-fulfillment of working hours and gender inequalities.

Prevalence and Characteristics of Chronic Pain Among Patients in Portuguese Primary Care Units

“…Usually considered an outcome of injury or disease, CP has been classified as a distinct clinical entity and not as a consequence of other diseases [ 1 , 5 ]. This condition impacts many aspects of patients’ lives, affecting home/family responsibilities, work, social life and recreational activities [ 2 , 6 ]. Accordingly, low back and neck pain, which are symptomatic chronic conditions, are among the main causes of disability [ 1 ].…”

Pain-driven emergency department visits and food insecurity: a cross-sectional study linking Canadian survey and health administrative data

“…3 Abdominal and pelvic pain, pain in the throat and chest, and dorsalgia are among the most common causes of emergency department visits in Canada, jointly accounting for one-tenth of all visits. 4 Pain may reduce quality of life and trigger or exacerbate substance abuse, anxiety and depression, 5,6 precipitating suicide in extreme cases. 7 Service delays and undertreatment at emergency departments are believed to contribute to risky self-medication by patients with pain.…”

Profiles of adult people in a Spanish sample with chronic pain: Cluster analysis

“…Another study by Giesecke et al (2003) classified people with CNCP based on psychological characteristics such as anxiety, depression, catastrophizing and control over pain. Our study has identified two groups, but classifying people based on other characteristics, widely regarded in the literature as factors related to the suffering of CNCP (Rivera et al, 2020), including age, opioid consumption, anxiolytic consumption, employment status and impact of CNCP on daily life (Cáceres‐Matos et al, 2020). Although some of the variables mentioned in the above studies were included (pain intensity, number of pain sites and duration of evolution of the pain), these were excluded from the hierarchical cluster analysis.…”