Background: Chronic pain constitutes a substantial socio-economic challenge but little is known about its actual cost. Aim: To estimate the direct and indirect costs of patients with a diagnosis related to chronic pain (DRCP), to determine variation in these costs across different diagnosis groups, and to identify what resources constitute the most important components of costs. Methods: Patient level data from three administrative registries in Västra Götalandsregionen in Sweden including inpatient and outpatient care, prescriptions, long-term sick-leaves, and early retirement were extracted. Patients with a DRCP between January 2004 and November 2009 were selected. Results: In total, 840,000 patients with a DRCP were identified. The mean total costs per patient and year were estimated at 6400 EUR but were higher for patients with cancer (10,400 EUR). Patients on analgesic drugs had more than twice as high costs as patients without analgesic drugs, on average. Indirect costs (sick-leaves and early retirement) constituted the largest cost component (59%) followed by outpatient (21%) and inpatient care (14%), whereas analgesic drug prescriptions constituted less than 1 percent of the total. Conclusions: The socio-economic burden of patients with a diagnosis related to chronic pain amounts to 32 billion EUR per year, when findings from Västra Götalandsregionen are extrapolated to the whole of Sweden. This compares to a fifth of the total Swedish tax burden in 2007 or about a tenth of Swedish GDP. This study does not provide evidence on what costs are caused by chronic pain per se. However, the higher costs of patients on analgesic drugs might indicate that the consequences of pain are of major importance.

Slow-release strong opioids (SRSO) are indicated in patients with severe chronic pain. Side effects, lack of efficacy and risk of dependency limit their use in clinical practice. The aim of this study was to explore prescription patterns of SRSO in Swedish real-world data on patients with a diagnosis related to chronic pain (DRCP). Patient-level data were extracted from the national prescriptions register and a regional register with diagnosis codes. The prescription sequences, switches, co-medications, and strengths over time were analyzed for cancer and noncancer patients. Of 840,000 patients with a DRCP, 16,257 initiated treatment with an SRSO in 2007 to 2008. They were 71 years old on average; 60% were female and 34% had cancer. The most common first prescription was oxycodone (54%) followed by fentanyl (19%), buprenorphine (14%), and morphine (13%). 63% refilled their prescription within 6 months, and 12% switched to another SRSO, most commonly fentanyl. After 3 years, 51% of cancer and 27% of noncancer patients still being in contact with health care remained on any SRSO. Of noncancer patients, 35% had a psychiatric co-medication (SSRI or benzodiazepine). In conclusion, fewer patients remain on SRSO in the long-term in clinical practice than reported in previous clinical trials. Oxycodone is the most common first SRSO prescription and one-third of patients get a prescription indicating psychiatric comorbidity. Our interpretation of these findings are that there is need for better treatment options for these patients, and that more effort is needed to improve treatment guidelines and to ascertain that these guidelines are followed.

Treatment initiation of currently available drugs indicated for neuropathic pain less frequently lead to long-term treatment in clinical practice compared with clinical trial, and few try more than one drug. We suggest our findings to be indications of a need for better routines in diagnosing patients to ascertain optimal treatment and follow-up.