Painkillers cause rising costs

Painkillers are causing rising costs in the healthcare system. Most patients suffer from back and headaches.

01/07/2011

The medical prescription of painkillers for chronic pain has been steadily increasing. As a result of the increase in pharmaceutical consumption, the costs in the healthcare system are also rising significantly. This has resulted in an evaluation of the health insurance KKH alliance. In many cases, painkillers could be superfluous if the affected person would undertake targeted therapies.

According to the evaluation of the drug database of the health insurance KKH-Allianz, the consumption of painkillers has risen significantly compared to previous years. Compared to 2007, a total of 14 percent more analgesic packs were prescribed by a doctor. As a result, the cost of medicated pain in the reference period increased by 31 percent, as the health insurance announced. Patients with a chronic pain on average go to the doctor about 44 times a year. „This is a worrying development“, said KKH Allianz CEO Ingo Kailuweit. „Pain patients have an immense suffering, but also cause high costs for the health insurance companies. Therefore, it is important to find new ways of treating pain patients, so that those affected first and foremost experience a better quality of life.“

Back pain is a major complaint
Chronic pain occurs when the pain persists for a longer period of time from a few months to years and no improvement occurs. According to the KKH Alliance, around six to eight million people in Germany suffer from chronic pain. In the sexes, however, show significant differences. Women suffer twice as much pain as men. However, this may also be related to the fact that men are still, as a rule, less likely to see a doctor than women. Most commonly, patients with manifested pain complain of back pain. 30 percent of men and 40 percent of women complain of long-lasting back problems. The second most common chronic pain is the headache. About 20 percent of men and 35 percent of women suffer from recurrent headaches and migraine attacks.

Few take special pain therapy
Apparently, the drug consumption in Germany has solidified as a coping strategy. Only a few, according to the KKH analysis, seek treatment from a specialist or specialist. For example, only about one percent of pain patients took therapy in a pain clinic. According to the health insurance but also many sufferers apparently lack a precise diagnosis. In many cases, there is also a lack of networking among the various GPs and specialists.

Economic losses due to chronic pain
Chronic pain not only causes the sufferer suffering, the consequences of chronic pain are not insignificant from an economic point of view. On average, patients incur about 38 billion euros in costs per year. An economic loss is mainly caused by lost time due to acute attacks of pain of the person concerned. „Employers should also have an interest in quickly restoring the health of their employees in the face of high absenteeism of pain patients“, said the KKH Alliance spokeswoman. The health fund could report from the experience of their health programs, which have achieved a positive effect. Targeted headache and migraine therapies were able to significantly alleviate the symptoms in around 50 percent of cases.“This means a gain in three ways: For those affected, the quality of life increases, employers get more productivity and costs for health insurance companies.“

Everyone can relieve discomfort with targeted exercises for back pain. Because the increased consumption of painkillers can cause numerous side effects that cause additional discomfort, especially in the gastrointestinal tract. Especially with pain in the lower part of the back, exercises for back pain can be very helpful. (Sb)

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