Epidemiology of pain in Gabon

The authors report on a prospective survey which took place from January 1999 to December 2000 - the epidemiology of pain in Gabon - to determine its distribution in the population. Ninety-eight women and eighty-four men aged 17 to 80 years old (mean age: 50) who consulted at the pain clinic were included in the study, a majority of the patients being aged between 21 and 60 years. Lower back pains and gonalgias secondary to osteo-arthritis or arthritis were more common in the North of the country, where the patients represented 57.7% of the sample, these two previous localisations along with cephalagias accounting for 52.7% of the motives for the visits. Thoracic and abdominal pains common in both men and women in the South were psychological. Patients working in the tertiary sector represented 45.3% of the patients, those of the secondary sector 24.4%, and those of the primary 20.3%. The non-steroidal anti-inflammatory analgesics (NSAI) associated with WHO grade 1 and 2 analgesics were effective in 50% of cases, some of whom also needed steroidal articular infiltration. Psychological pains were soothed by amitriptyline. A specific training of doctors and paramedics in pain treatment is necessary to improve care and assistance in this area.