Have you heard about the new diagnoses for chronic pain?
On May 25, the World Health Assembly, which is the governing organ of the World Health Organization (WHO) approved the new version of the International Classification of diseases (ICD-11). This means that beginning with January 2022, the new diagnoses will come into effect, and the national health systems have time until then to prepare implementation.
What is new in the ICD-11? For the first time, the ICD-11 contains a classification dedicated to chronic pain. This new classification provides specific pain diagnoses. It was developed by an international research group, chaired by Professor Rolf-Detlef Treede (Mannheim, Germany) and Professor Winfried Rief (Marburg, Germany).
Why is this important? The ICD is important for a number of things, for example, diagnoses, treatment choice, research, policy decisions, and healthcare reimbursements. It is hoped that the new classification of chronic pain will improve access to adequate pain treatment, motivate researchers to find out more about chronic pain, and facilitate talking about chronic pain. Furthermore, the ICD-11 classification of chronic pain will make chronic pain more visible.
How can you help? We are very interested to learn what people affected by chronic pain think about this new ICD-11 classification of chronic pain. Do you think it will describe your pain better than your current diagnoses? Do you expect improvements? If you have had chronic pain that lasted for 3 months or more, please participate in our survey! The survey also contains a video that explains the ICD-11 classification of chronic pain in more detail. All data are collected anonymously. Completing the survey takes around 15 minutes.
This is the link to the survey: https://www.unipark.de/uc/icd11_survey/
Why is your participation critical, as a pain patient? PAE considers that any study concerning the patients should involve the patients in all the steps, from design to implementation. In order to make our opinions count, we need to express them. Therefore we solicit your participation from time to time and on important matters, via surveys developed by or with academic partners like the University of Marburg in Germany.
Who are the creators of this survey? Pain Alliance Europe is supporting in this initiative a research team at the University of Marburg, Germany. Dr. Antonia Barke and Beatrice Korwisi, M. Sc., are the principal investigators. If you have any questions regarding the survey or the new ICD-11 classification of chronic pain, please contact Beatrice Korwisi (beatrice.korwisi@staff.uni-marburg.de).
