Most of the time we are not aware of how definitions can limit reality. This is exactly what happens when we refer to chronic pain. The distribution of the pathology, in order to facilitate its study and treatment by different specialists, has deepened its specific knowledge but many times the great proximity to a pathology, prevents to see with enough distance the problem as a whole.
The term chronic comes from Chronos, the god of time in Greek mythology, son of Uranus (Heaven) and Gaea (Earth) and father of Zeus, Poseidon and Hades, who deported him to exile in the underworld. The prolonged time, the persistence of a symptomatology after the disappearance of the cause or a duration of more than six months, make the pathology become a disease in itself. What is sometimes not taken into account is the social and health scope of the problem.
For example, 3 out of 4 patients who go to the emergency department do so because of a flare-up of a chronic problem. In fact, half of the population suffers from a chronic disease and almost 70% of those over 65 years of age suffer from three or more pathologies of this type.
With the progressive aging of the population and the presence of concomitant pathologies in almost all our patients, we must all contribute to global strategies for dealing with chronic pathologies that will allow today’s elderly (and those we will be tomorrow) to maintain a quality health system that is sustainable from the point of view of resources.
International organizations such as the Spanish Ministry of Health and the Autonomous Communities have developed programs for the care of chronic patients. They have given priority to prevention, health promotion, education and training of therapists and patients, giving the patient a greater role. Some of the most important changes have been the development of centralized medical records, electronic prescriptions, the expansion of day centers and the inclusion of a broad program of social care, leisure, culture and sports.
Health is a common good, but also an individual one. That is why it is the responsibility of each of us to do our share of the effort and to demand that others do the same. What seems to be someone else’s problem today will be our own problem tomorrow.