A major challenge for a generous welfare system: A heavy socio-economic burden of chronic pain conditions in Sweden - and how to meet this challenge.

摘要

In this issue of the European Journal of Pain, Gustavs-son and co-workers publish an interesting and important study based on data from administrative databases from half (54%) of the 1.6 million inhabitants in the Vastra Gotaland region of Sweden (Gustavsson et al., 2012). These databases provided patient-level direct and indirect costs to the healthcare and welfare systems of 840,000 patients with one or more diagnoses that commonly are associated with prolonged pain, for the years 2004-2009. Costs were for direct inpatient and outpatient care, drug prescriptions, long-term (more than 15 days) sick leaves, and early retirements.