Gerhard Müller-Schwefe

TL;DR: Universal, user-friendly educational tools are required to familiarise physicians with pain mechanisms, sensitisation and multi-mechanistic management, and also to improve communication between physicians and their pain patients, so that realistic expectations of treatment can be established.

TL;DR: The prolonged-release form of oxycodone offers a fast onset of analgesia, controlling pain for 12 hours and providing clinically meaningful relief of moderate to severe pain and improving quality of life across a broad spectrum of pain types.

TL;DR: The experience of pain far outweighs the contribution of more traditional explanations of HRQoL deficits as well as being the primary factor associated with increased provider visits, emergency room visits and hospitalizations.

TL;DR: The experience of pain, in particular severe daily pain, has a substantial negative association with labor force participation in these five European countries as well as reported absenteeism and presenteeism.

TL;DR: Improved training in pain management is clearly needed, starting with the undergraduate medical curriculum, and this review is intended to encourage further study by those who manage patients with chronic pain.