Socio-economic burden for chronic pain patients
Swedish Publication in the European Journal of Pain
Socio-economic burden of patients with a diagnosis related to chronic pain – Register data of 840,000 Swedish patients.
A. Gustavsson, J. Bjorkman, C. Ljungcrantz, A. Rhodin, M. Rivano-Fischer, K.-F. Sjolund, C. Mannheimer
Patient level data from three administrative registries in Västra Götalands regionen in Sweden including inpatient and outpatient care, prescriptions, long-term sick-leaves, and early retirement were analysed. Based on this data it was calculated that the socio-economic burden of patients with a diagnosis related to chronic pain amounts to 32 billion EUR per year in Sweden. This compares to a fifth of the total Swedish tax burden in 2007 or about a tenth of Swedish GDP.
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