[Chronic pain in German medical practices. Current demands placed on the primary health care system due to pain prevalence].

Background: The prevalence of chronic pain as related to the supply situation in primary care has been investigated insufficiently.

Patients And Methods: A questionnaire was used to collect data of 1,201 patients in 6 different specialists' practices (general medicine, surgery, internal medicine, neurology, oncology, orthopaedics). The questions posed related to socio-demographic facts, pain characteristics, psychosocial effects, previous therapies and their subjective effectiveness.

Chronic pain in primary care. German figures from 1991 and 2006.

Background: Until now only limited research has been done on the prevalence of chronic pain in primary care. The aim of this investigation was to study the health care utilisation of patients suffering from pain. How many patients visit an outpatient clinic because of the symptom of pain? These data were compared with data from a similar study in 1991, to investigate whether improvements had been achieved.