The Austrian Pain Society is focusing on gender pain in the Pain Weeks 2024
Vienna (OTS) – This is already the 23rd time Austrian Pain Society (ÖSG) as part of their press conference at the start of the “Painful weeks” about the possibilities and developments of modern pain medicine in Austria. The current pain week is approaching „Gender Pain“ and the gender differences in the perception, development and treatment of pain.
Appeal to politicians: Austrian Pain Society demands legal right to a second medical opinion
“Chronic pain is not only a great burden for those affected, it also causes enormous costs. Around 1.8 million people in Austria suffer from chronic pain. Extrapolated, this causes a total of up to 8 billion euros in direct and indirect costs every year.”
said ÖSG President Ao. Univ.-Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Eisner, who, among other things, is appealing to politicians for a legal right to a second medical opinion for this reason. More patient safety, fewer medical misjudgments or unnecessary interventions: In cases of doubt, a second medical opinion would often be a benefit.
Eisner is currently pleased about a milestone in pain therapy in Austria, because integrative pain therapy will be anchored in the Austrian Structural Plan for Health (ÖSG) by summer 2024, which also lays the foundation for the structural plans of the individual federal states (RSGs). “The goal is that there will be at least one pain center for every federal state”
was the ÖSG President’s direct appeal to politicians.
Women suffer from more intense and longer-lasting pain than men
As every year, the ÖSG’s information initiative has a thematic focus in line with the international campaign of the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) and the European Pain Federation (EFIC). 2024 is the topic „Sex and Gender Disparities in Pain“. For good reason: Women generally suffer more often from pain and pain-related illnesses. They are estimated to experience chronic pain six times as often as men. You have more intense and longer lasting pain and more parts of your body affected by pain. On average, they have poorer endogenous pain inhibition and there is evidence that pain processing in the central and peripheral nervous system is significantly more sensitive in women. The pain in women is also increased by the fact that they suffer more frequently from depressive symptoms. “It is important for pain therapy that some painkillers have been proven to have gender-specific differences in effectiveness and even have opposite effects. Reports of medication side effects are almost twice as high among women as among men. Eight out of ten medicines taken off the market due to toxic serious side effects occurred in women. We want to raise awareness for this. Pain therapy must develop much more clearly away from unisex medicine and towards gender-specific treatments.”
emphasizes OÄ Dr. Waltraud Stromer, Past President of the Austrian Pain Society.
Exercise as a preventive measure against chronic pain
More than half of Austrian adults and around two thirds of people under the age of 18 do not exercise enough and therefore do not meet the minimum requirements of national and international exercise recommendations. University Prof. Dr. Richard Crevenna presented the ÖSG initiative “MOVE!/move4you”which aims to raise awareness of the importance of exercise in preventing chronic pain. “Regular physical activity, exercise and training act like a “polypill”, i.e. like a medication with broad preventive, therapeutic and rehabilitative effects. Targeted and regular exercise but also staying active despite pain is of great importance, especially in the case of non-dangerous, “unspecific” pain. In the majority of cases, a lot can be achieved (clinically and economically) with the widespread disease “back and lower back pain” through active prevention and treatment. In addition, targeted training can not only prevent and reduce pain, it also distracts from it, especially if you train not alone, but together with other people.”
so Crevenna (1).
ICD-11 needs to be introduced especially because of Long/Post COVID 19
“Due to physiological circumstances, women have a higher risk of chonification than men, which makes it all the more important that the International Classification of Diseases in the 11th Revision (ICD-11) also comes into force in Austria soon.”
, said Prim. Univ.-Prof. Dr. Rudolf Likar. The ICD is used worldwide for the uniform classification of diagnoses. After pain in medicine was previously seen exclusively as a symptom in numerous clinical pictures, the WHO included chronic pain conditions (≥ 3 months) as an independent disease group (MG30) in the ICD-11, which came into force in 2022. “The diagnosis of ‘chronic pain’ is also extremely important with regard to long/post COVID 19, because the diagnosis of long/post COVID 19 pain should be carried out in accordance with pain medical standards.”
adds Likar.
Integrative pain therapy in Austria
In Austria there is currently a diploma for special pain therapy from the Austrian Medical Association (ÖÄK) for special medical training in pain medicine, which consists of 120 hours of theory and 80 hours of practice. “According to an evaluation by the ÖÄK, 1,420 doctors in Austria recently had this diploma. Around two thirds were specialists and around a third were general practitioners. The largest proportion of doctors with a diploma fell in Vienna.”
, Likar stated: He advocated anchoring interdisciplinarity in training. Further training with 400 hours of practice and 80 hours of theory would make sense. If patients who need highly specialized care are assigned to pain facilities, pain centers, rehabilitation facilities and day hospitals, it would be an important qualitative distinction for these centers to have in-depth training in pain therapy. “We want a certificate for pain therapy in interdisciplinary pain facilities in hospitals in Austria”
So Likar.
With friendly support from:
B. Braun Austria GmbH, Candoro ethics GmbH, FRESENIUS KABI AUSTRIA GmbH, Gebro Pharma GmbH, Grünenthal Ges. mb H., Pfizer Corporation Austria Gesellschaft mbH, Sanofi-Aventis GmbH, schwa-medico, teva Austria
(1) Richard Crevenna. Prevent and actively treat back pain An interdisciplinary guide to back health in the workplace. Prevention and treatment of back problems
ISBN: 978-3-214-02529-8 MANZ Verlag Wien (https://shop.manz.at/shop/products/9783214025298)
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