Health care costs, work productivity and activity impairment in non-malignant chronic pain patients.

This study explores the costs of non-malignant chronic pain in patients awaiting treatment in a multidisciplinary pain clinic in a hospital setting. Health care costs due to chronic pain are particular high during the first year after pain onset, and remain high compared with health care costs before pain onset. The majority of chronic pain patients incur the costs of alternative treatments. Chronic pain causes production losses at work, as well as impairment of non-work activities.