Prevalence of chronic pain in Brazil: systematic review

ABSTRACT BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Chronic pain is considered a worldwide public health problem, can lead to physical and emotional stress, in addition to high financial and social costs for the population. The aim of this study was to produce a systematic review to identify the prevalence of chronic pain in Brazil, considering its geographical regions and mechanisms subclassifications by the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP). CONTENTS: A systematic review was carried out on the following databases: Scielo, Pubmed, Periodicos Capes, Science Direct and Virtual Health Library. 35 studies that investigated the prevalence of chronic pain in Brazil were included. The prevalence ranged from 23.02 to 76.17%, presenting a national average of 45.33% between studies, affecting more women. The Brazilian region with the highest prevalence among the included studies was the Midwest region (56.25%), however the region with the most studies and the largest population analyzed was the Southeast region (42.2%). Regarding the classifications of IASP mechanisms, possibly nociceptive pain had a prevalence of 36,70%, whereas neuropathic pain was 14,5% and nociplastic pain 12,5%. CONCLUSION: The present study observed a high prevalence of chronic pain in Brazil, being the majority in women. Regarding chronic pain mechanisms, the possibly nociceptive predominance was the most prevalent. As for the national geographic region, the highlight of the highest prevalence of chronic pain was for the Midwest region, however the region with the most studies and the largest population analyzed was the Southeast region.