[Quality of life and treatment costs in patients with non-cancer chronic pain].

Background: there is still little information about the use of generic questionnaires [e.g. the 36-item Short Form health survey (SF-36)] and utility questionnaires [e.g. the EuroQOL instrument (EQ-5D) and visual analogue scale (VAS)] in patients with non-cancer chronic pain.

Objectives: (i) to measure quality of life and utility in patients with non-cancer chronic pain using the SF-36 and the EuroQOL questionnaires; (ii) to assess direct costs and to evaluate the impact of some clinical variables on diagnostic or treatment costs.

Participants: 153 patients from 9 Italian Center for treatment non-cancer chronic pain (54% male, mean age 57 years) completed both quality of life questionnaires and diagnostic and treatment prescription questionnaire.

Results: the mean scores for the 8 domains of the SF-36 ranged from 23.7 (physical role) to 53.7 (mental health). The EuroQOL mean score was 0.28 in the self-classifier (EQ-5D) version and 6.4 in the visual analogue scale (VAS) version. The direct costs was assessed in 173 Euro, in two months observation period (the analysis was conducted from the National Health System perspectives); we found some differences between pathologies observed: about 180 Euro for back pain or arthrosis, about 155 Euro for periarthritis of the shoulder.

Conclusions: our study, quantified the quality of life in patients with non-cancer chronic pain, showed that the presence of pain had an important role. The EuroQOL measurements obtained from these patients will aid evaluation of the cost-utility ratio for pain therapies.