Back pain cost €500m in 2002

WHILE back pain now costs the economy hundreds of millions of euro in disability payments each year, there is no plan to deal with it, a medical conference head said yesterday.

Professor Dominic Harmon told delegates at a University of Limerick organised symposium that while there are strategies in place for heart disease and cancer, no such strategy exists for chronic pain which costs the State more than the two other diseases combined.

Prof Harmon, consultant in pain medicine at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital said up to 13% of the general population report ongoing chronic pain.