On the day set aside for World Pain Day, a quiet but heavy fact came into view: roughly a quarter of the people living in Spain carry chronic pain through their ordinary days, about nine million lives shaped by something that does not simply pass. The Spanish Pain Society has made this visible, and the burden falls unevenly, weighing most on women in their early fifties and reaching into work, friendships, and peace of mind. It is a reminder that suffering which lingers often outlasts the clinic visit, and that how a society responds to it says much about what it values.
One in Four Spaniards Lives With Chronic Pain, Women Aged 51 Hit Hardest
Roughly nine million adults in Spain live with chronic pain, with significant work and social limitations for 30% of sufferers.
Nine million people carry it through their days.
Mark
Nine million people is a huge figure. What stands out most to you?
Mimi
That it isn't only pain. Thirty percent have real social and work limits, and anxiety and depression follow for many.
Mark
Why women around 51?
Luke
Careful there. The report says research suggests it, and gives no reason. We don't know why from this reporting.
Mimi
Fair. What we have is the pattern, not the explanation.
Mark
And the treatment gap?
Mimi
The SEMG says half get insufficient treatment and a third get none. Care is spread over nine or so specialties.
Luke
Worth noting those are the physicians' society's figures, and the reporting doesn't say how they were measured.
Mark
So what are the experts asking for?
Mimi
More pain units, because some patients wait years to reach one, and chronic pain training for all doctors.
Luke
Those are proposals. Nothing here says anyone has agreed to them.
Der Puls
- Roughly nine million people in Spain are living with pain that returns most days and refuses to resolve.
- Nearly a third of sufferers find their work and social lives narrowed, and anxiety and depression press in alongside the ache.
- Patients often wait years before reaching a specialist pain unit, moving from one department to another without a unified path.
- Half of those with chronic pain are undertreated and a third receive no treatment at all, leaving a gap that experts say must be closed.
- Specialists are calling for dedicated pain units and better training for every doctor, and the question now is whether health authorities will respond.
On the day set aside for World Pain Day, a quiet but heavy fact came into view: roughly a quarter of the people living in Spain carry chronic pain through their ordinary days, about nine million lives shaped by something that does not simply pass. The Spanish Pain Society has made this visible, and the burden falls unevenly, weighing most on women in their early fifties and reaching into work, friendships, and peace of mind. It is a reminder that suffering which lingers often outlasts the clinic visit, and that how a society responds to it says much about what it values.
On World Pain Day, the Spanish Pain Society released figures that put a number on something many families already know: 26 percent of people in Spain, roughly nine million, live with chronic pain. Women are hit harder than men, and the person most likely to be affected is a woman around 51. Chronic lower back pain is among the leading causes behind these totals.
The effects travel well beyond the body. Around 30 percent of sufferers face significant limits on their social lives and their work, while 28 percent report anxiety and 22 percent report depression. The society's president, Maria Madariaga, defines chronic pain as pain that recurs at least four or five days a week, has lasted three months or more, and has not been resolved by treatment. She calls it a public health problem of the first order.
Madariaga stresses that primary care is vital for medication, but that physiotherapy and psychology are essential parts of any real treatment. Her verdict on how public health handles the chronic nature of pain is blunt: it is not good. The Spanish Society of General and Family Physicians backs this up, estimating that half of patients receive insufficient treatment and a third receive none. Care is scattered across many specialties, from traumatology to neurology to psychology.
The experts propose two remedies: more specialist pain units, so patients stop waiting years for help, and better chronic pain training for every doctor. Whether health authorities act on these calls remains to be seen.
On the Friday of World Pain Day, the Spanish Pain Society (SED) put a number on something many households already know: 26 percent of people in Spain live with chronic pain. That works out to roughly nine million people who carry it through their days.
The society released the figures to coincide with the day itself, and the picture they describe is uneven. Women suffer more than men, and the research points to a woman of around 51 as the person most likely to be affected. Chronic lower back pain is one of the leading problems behind the totals.
The toll reaches well beyond the body. According to the research cited, 30 percent of sufferers face significant limits on their social lives and their work. Anxiety affects 28 percent, and depression 22 percent.
SED president Maria Madariaga laid out what counts as chronic pain: pain that occurs at least four or five days a week, has lasted at least three months, and has not been resolved by treatment. She called it a public health problem of the first order, one that affects millions of adults in Spain and erodes their health and their social and work independence.
The World Health Organisation divides chronic pain into two broad types. Primary pain is regarded as a disease in its own right, one that cannot be better explained by another condition. Secondary pain is a symptom of some other disease, and the category is wide: cancer pain, post-surgical or post-traumatic pain, neuropathic pain, and chronic musculoskeletal pain arising in bones, joints, muscles, the spine or soft tissues.
Madariaga said primary care is vital for tackling pain with medication, but she described physiotherapy and psychology as essential parts of the multidisciplinary view that treatment requires. Her assessment of the current state of affairs was blunt: the way public health deals with the chronic nature of pain, she said, is not good.
The Spanish Society of General and Family Physicians (SEMG) supplies figures that bear her out. By its count, half of people with chronic pain receive insufficient treatment, and a third receive none at all. Where treatment does exist, it tends to be spread across many specialties: traumatology, physiotherapy, internal medicine, rehabilitation, neurology, rheumatology, neurosurgery, oncology and psychology.
SED's experts propose two remedies. One is more specialist pain units, since some patients take years to reach one. The other is better training in chronic pain for every doctor. Whether health authorities act on either call is the thing to watch.
Bemerkenswerte Zitate
It is a public health problem of the first order that affects millions of adults in Spain.— Maria Madariaga, president of the Spanish Pain Society (SED)
The approach to the chronicity of pain in public health is not good.— Maria Madariaga, SED president
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