Impact of Covid-19 pandemic on chronic pain management: looking for the best way to deliver care

Puntillo, Filomena; Giglio, Mariateresa; Brienza, Nicola; Viswanath, Omar; Urits, Ivan; Kaye, Alan D.; Pergolizzi, Joseph; Paladini, Antonella; Varrassi, Giustino

Although pain treatment has been described as a fundamental human right, the COVID-19 pandemic forced health care systems worldwide to redistribute health care resources towards intensive care units and other COVID-19 dedicated sites. As most chronic pain services were subsequently deemed non-urgent, all outpatient and elective interventional procedures have been reduced or interrupted during the COVID-19 pandemic in order to reduce the risk of viral spread. The shutdown of pain services jointly to the home lockdown imposed by governments, has affected chronic pain management worldwide with additional impact on patients’ psychological health. The aim of this review, therefore, is to analyze the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on chronic pain treatment and to address what types of strategies can been implemented or supported in order to overcome imposed limitations in delivery of chronic pain patient care.