title: Identifying patients with chronic widespread pain in primary care.
abstract: Chronic widespread pain (CWP) is common in the general population. It is unclear how people reporting this problem present in primary care; they may regularly consult for regional pains without being recognized as having a generalized condition. Our objectives were to determine the prevalence of people consulting in primary care for musculoskeletal conditions in different body regions on different occasions (recurrent regional pain consultation), the proportion with diagnosed generalized pain and survey-reported widespread pain, and if they have features characteristic of CWP. Phase 1 used electronic records from 12 general practices in North Staffordshire (Consultations in Primary Care Archive) from 2005 to 2009. Phase 2 used linked self-reported health and primary health care data from 8286 people aged >50 years in 8 general practices (North Staffordshire Osteoarthritis Project) between 2002 and 2005. In Phase 1, 11% of registered patients fulfilled criteria for recurrent regional pain consultation. Three-quarters had no recorded CWP-related generalized pain condition (eg, fibromyalgia). In Phase 2, 53% of recurrent regional pain consulters had survey-reported widespread pain and 88% had consulted for somatic symptoms. Self-reported general health was worse in recurrent regional pain consulters than in single-region consulters and poorest in those who also reported persistent widespread pain. Recurrent regional pain consulters are a heterogeneous group of frequent consulters sharing features with CWP (eg, somatic symptoms) but including those less severely affected. They lie on the spectrum of polysymptomatic distress characteristic of CWP and represent a group whose needs may be better met by earlier diagnosis of multisite pain.
authors.affiliation: Department of Non-Communicable Disease Epidemiology, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Kathryn E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Mansfield
authors.affiliation: Arthritis Research UK Primary Care Centre, Research Institute for Primary Care & Health Sciences, Keele University, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Julius
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sim
authors.affiliation: Arthritis Research UK Primary Care Centre, Research Institute for Primary Care & Health Sciences, Keele University, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Croft
authors.affiliation: Arthritis Research UK Primary Care Centre, Research Institute for Primary Care & Health Sciences, Keele University, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Kelvin P
authors.initials: KP
authors.lastname: Jordan
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D059350:Chronic Pain / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology / Q000628:therapy; D057286:Electronic Health Records / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010003:Osteoarthritis / Q000150:complications; D010147:Pain Measurement; D015995:Prevalence; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012017:Referral and Consultation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D057566:Self Report; D012737:Sex Factors; D055815:Young Adult