PARLIAMENTARY EARLY DAY MOTION
CHRONIC PAIN (12 June 2016)

That this House notes that chronic pain is identified as a condition in its own right, and that the measured prevalence of chronic pain varies according to precisely how it is defined and identified; further notes that the cited figure is 20 per cent, or 1 in 5, of the European population and that 1 in 20 of our population live with severe pain with a quarter of these in severe, intense and highly disabling chronic pain; notes that this figure is probably the closest to the clinically relevant prevalence of chronic pain and is roughly equivalent to the prevalence of heart disease, diabetes, major depression and other severe long-term illnesses; notes that there are an estimated 4.6 million GP appointments per year for chronic pain in the UK costing £69 million, which equates to 793 full-time GPs; notes that chronic pain sufferers attend their GP five times more frequently than those without and that the most common sites of chronic pain are the back and joints, with chronic pain lasting more than five years; and notes that the overall quality of life in the presence of chronic pain is shown to very low and all dimensions of health, including physical, psychological and social are shown to be severely reduced with a 10 year mortality, higher among those with severe chronic pain, particularly death from heart of respiratory disease which is twice the rate of those without severe chronic pain.

Sponsored by:
Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party)