Long-term pain sufferers "need help"

More must be done by the government to help ease the suffering of people with long-term pain, according to a report from the Patients Association.

Many people are unaware of how to take pain medicine properly and have no knowledge of potential side-effects, a survey of about 4,400 members of public found.

About one third of the 1,200 people with chronic pain are not taking the drugs as prescribed to them. A total of 57% were in the dark about potential side-effects, and many did not understand how to use their medication.

Chronic pain is defined as continuous pain lasting 12 weeks or more, and as many as eight million people in the UK are thought to suffer with it, the study said.

Yet there is only one pain specialist for every 32,000 sufferers, according to the Public Attitudes to Pain report, the biggest of its kind on pain.

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