One in eight of us suffer with chronic pain
One in eight Irish adults are suffering with chronic pain, described as pain that "lasts longer than 3 months".
The figures were released at today's IPU National Pharmacy Conference in Killarney, with back pain joints and neck pain being the common causes.
The conference has also heard that managing chronic pain can be a complex issue and, for sufferers, the experience can be life-changing, seriously impacting on their day-to-day quality of life.
Speaking at the conference, IPU Vice-President Daragh Connolly said pharmacists have a clinical role to play in assessing patients' needs.
"People are enjoying longer lives. The longer you are around, the more chance there is that something can happen to you that might involve chronic pain," he said.
"What we want to be able to do is to use the statistics that we have [and] marry that up with our clinical knowledge as pharmacists, if it's a case that can't be controlled using over-the-counter medicines.
"If we can fast-track people into the next step of the ladder in primary care, we can get better results for people."
He also spoke about the important role pharmacists play in the risk assessment of people who may become dependent on or addicted to pain medication, particularly in chronic condition where treatment is long-term.
