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Revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11)

Giving chronic pain the greater attention it deserves as a global health priority.


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About ICD-11

About ICD-11

Chronic pain affects an estimated 20% of people worldwide and accounts for nearly one in five physician visits. Furthermore, chronic pain is one of the leading causes of the global burden of disease. One way to ensure that chronic pain receives greater attention as a global health priority and facilitates access to adequate pain treatment is to improve the representation of chronic pain in the recent 11th revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) diagnostic classification.

In response to this need, IASP created an international and interdisciplinary task force of pain experts, headed by past president Rolf-Detlef Treede and Winfried Rief, that, in close cooperation with the World Health Organization (WHO), developed a systematic and pragmatic classification of chronic pain. This new classification of chronic pain has been implemented in the ICD-11 and was evaluated successfully in several field studies.

The ICD-11 was approved on 25 May 2019. It came into effect for international mortality reporting on 1st January 2022. Several countries are preparing the implementation of the ICD-11 within their healthcare systems.

You can access the complete ICD-11 chronic pain classification here.

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A glossary of definitions related to chronic pain conditions for international use.

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Learn more about the structure of the ICD-11 Classification.

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IASP Task Force for the Classification of Chronic Pain

IASP Task Force for the Classification of Chronic Pain

Meet our multidisciplinary team of volunteers that revised the classification of pain diseases in 2013 – 2021.

Co-chairs of the Task Force

Rolf-Detlef Treede (Germany)

Winfried Rief (Germany)

General Advice

Michael B. First (USA), ICD

Eva Kosek (Sweden), IASP Terminology Task Force

Primary Care Applicability

Blair Smith (UK)

Pediatric Pain Applicability

Stefan Friedrichsdorf (USA)

Chronic Primary Pain

Johannes W. S. Vlaeyen (Belgium)

Michael Nicholas (Australia)

Chronic Postsurgical or Posttraumatic Pain

Stephan Schug (Australia)

Patricia Lavand‘homme (Belgium)

Chronic Headache

Stefan Evers (Germany)

Shuu-Jiun Wang (Taiwan)

Chronic Orofacial Pain

Peter Svensson (Denmark)

Rafael Benoliel (USA)

Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain

Serge Perrot (France)

Milton L. Cohen (Australia)

Chronic Cancer-Related Pain

Michael I. Bennett (UK)

Stein Kaasa (Norway)

Chronic Neuropathic Pain

Nanna Brix Finnerup (Denmark)

Nadine Attal (France)

Chronic Visceral Pain

Maria Adele Giamberardino (Italy)

Qasim Aziz (UK)

Task Force Staff

Beatrice Korwisi (Germany)

Consultant

Antonia Barke (Germany)

Former Task Force Member

Joachim Scholz (USA)