Treatment of patients with chronic pain in Russia. Time of change

According to WHO, about 20% of population suffers from chronic pain. First pain clinics whose purpose was to provide care to such kind of patients started to appear in 1961. There are reportedly about 15 multidisciplinary pain clinics in Russia nowadays.The development of this medical branch in Russia is restrained by several factors: the absence of legal basis for pain specialists, the lack of educational programs, clinical standards and recommendations, as well as absence of state medical insurance rates for chronic pain care.