Improving the quality of life of childen and youg people IT’S possible.
Why is it necessary to collaborate with the research on pediatric pain?
- Pediatri Pain it’s a problem that has not received the attention it deserves, a particularly serious situation in the case of chronic pain. And although it may be surprising, it is not an isolated problem; This unfortunate situation is repeated internationally. In fact, we know very little about the pain of children, undoubtedly the research is scarce, and what is still worse is the training and knowledge of professionals is very limited.
- Professional training is insufficient, a problem that is repeated worldwide. Although perhaps in our country the consequences of this lack of training are more serious since there are no specific multidisciplinary units of similar characteristics to those that do exist for adults.
- The data we have on the problem shows a very high prevalence. Studies that have been published internationally indicate that between 20% and 30% of children and young people experience chronic pain. The only study available to date, carried out in our country with the general population, reports that 37% of the participants (a representative sample of the population between 8 and 16 years old) reported having chronic pain. On many occasions the worst is not the intensity of pain, if not the effects of the continued presence of this pain; Effects that can be devastating, and that transcend those who experience it in the first person to reach all those people who coexist with the young person.
Currently there seems to be a movement of funds which should facilitate change this situation because, in fact, there is a major interest of all those involved: scientific societies (that would be indicative of the newly established group of pediatric pain in the Spanish Society of Pain), universities (for example, in September 2015, the first specific Chair on childhood pain was constituted at the Rovira i Virgili University -and there were others on pain but devoted exclusively to adults-), healthcare professionals (for example, we show actions in some hospitals to create specific units of chronic childhood pain), and the same users (for example, we have created some association specifically dedicated to the problem of chronic childhood / juvenile pain ), we are all working to improve the current state of affairs.
