[Chronic pain syndromes in orthopedics--typical sites, follow-up and patient characteristics]

This epidemiological questionnaire--study about 362 patients suffering from chronic pain related to muscle skeletal disorders shows the following results: most muscle skeletal pain syndromes are located in the area of the head and back (57.5%), patients who want to be treated in an orthopedic pain ambulance, suffer from at least "moderate" pain according to the verbal rating scale and at least from pain equal or more than 50 according to the numeric rating scale, for most patients (51.9%) the duration of the pain has been between 1 and 10 years, about twice as many women (60.5%) than men (39.5%) suffer from chronic muscle skeletal pain, pain syndromes seem to be of more chronic duration in women than in men, and women tend to take pain killers more frequently than men, most patients with chronic pain consult 2 to 6 doctors, for typical orthopedic pain syndromes most patients consult an orthopedic doctor, patients suffering from chronic headache consult an orthopedic specialist about as frequently as an neurologist or internal specialist.