The European Day on Pain Awareness falls on 21 October. It is a recent day, without an established name in Portuguese: in Portugal many people search for it as «dia europeu da dor» (European pain day) or «dia da dor crónica» (chronic pain day).
What the European Day on Pain Awareness 2026 is
The day is promoted by the European Pain Federation EFIC and is held every year on the third Wednesday of October. In 2026 it falls on the 21st. EFIC began building it in 2024, following on from the Global Day Against Pain, which IASP and EFIC first organised in 2004 with the co-sponsorship of the World Health Organization (EFIC).
The 2026 theme is «The Hidden Cost of Pain». This year EFIC looks at chronic pain from the angle of employment and productivity, and at what governments can do to keep people with pain in work and reduce the burden pain places on the rest of society. According to the same page, chronic pain affects around 20% of adults in Europe, close to 150 million people.
What pain costs outside the consulting room
In Portugal, the most complete picture is still a national study carried out by the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto, with more than 5,000 adults surveyed by telephone between 2007 and 2008. The data are old, and that is worth saying, but they come from a representative sample of the adult population.
In that study, 36.7% of adults had chronic pain, and almost half of those who had it (49%) said the pain interfered with their work. The highest levels of disability appeared in home and family responsibilities, leisure activities, work and sleep (Azevedo et al., 2012).
A second paper, using a subsample of the same study, calculated the cost. The annual costs of chronic pain in Portugal were estimated at around 4.6 billion euros, equivalent to 2.71% of GDP in 2010. And 57.3% of that amount was indirect costs: absences from work, lost productivity, early retirement (Azevedo et al., 2016). That is exactly the hidden cost this year's theme is about.
Then there is what no economic study captures well. The spouse who stops going out because the other cannot manage the journey. The son who asks his employer for days off to take his mother to her appointments. The person who gives up an activity they enjoyed because they no longer have the energy after a day at work.
The pain that is also lived in hospital
The 2026 theme is chronic pain and work. But anyone who works in a hospital, a continuing care unit or a care home knows another part of the cost, shorter and more frequent: the pain and anxiety of procedures and waiting.
The venepuncture for someone with difficult veins. The wound dressing changed every other day. The blood test for a child who already knows what is coming. The hour in the waiting room before a scan. The treatment session that takes a whole morning.
In these moments teams have long used non-pharmacological strategies, alongside pain relief and never instead of it: talking, explaining what is going to happen, good positioning, music, breathing, a relative's hand, a video on a phone. In paediatrics, distraction is part of the routine for many teams. None of this is peripheral. It is part of care.
The literature on distraction during procedures is among the most consistent in the field of virtual reality in healthcare, especially in acute pain and short procedures. We summarised the essentials in fear of needles and pain during procedures. In chronic pain, the subject of this day, the evidence is more mixed, and we said so in the pain clinic: where virtual reality fits, and where it does not.
What should not be promised
Talking about pain calls for care with words. Distraction helps many people get through a procedure with less anxiety, and it can help manage the pain of that moment. It is not pain relief, it does not replace any medication, it does not change doses and it does not take any decision away from the team. And the response varies from person to person: some people prefer to watch what is being done to them.
Nor does it make sense to present a comfort solution as an answer to the economic cost of chronic pain. That cost is addressed through access to pain clinics, rehabilitation, workplace adjustments, and what EFIC is asking governments for on this day. We wrote about the weight of the pharmacological side and the space that remains in the pain congress is this week.
Where RVer comes in
RVer is a library of 360° videos filmed in real places, used by the team as a non-pharmacological complement at specific moments: during a dressing change, a venepuncture, a long treatment session, a wait before a scan. The person looks around a beach, a garden or a city while the team does its work and controls the session from the Companion app. There is a lying-down mode, and the content works without an internet connection. It is used with people aged 10 and over.
RVer helps manage pain and anxiety at those moments. It does not promise less pain, nor does it treat chronic pain. The studies we know of on virtual reality in pain and anxiety are collected in studies, and the framework for hospital departments is on the hospitals page.
In short
- The European Day on Pain Awareness 2026 is on 21 October, promoted by EFIC, with the theme «The Hidden Cost of Pain».
- In Portugal, the available national study found chronic pain in 36.7% of adults and a cost of 2.71% of GDP, more than half of it in indirect costs.
- In hospitals there is another, shorter cost: the pain and anxiety of procedures and waiting.
- Non-pharmacological distraction is a complement teams already use. It is not pain relief.
RVer's base product is a Class I medical device, registered in EUDAMED and with INFARMED (Portugal). Sessions are run by the institution's professionals, complement existing care and do not replace assessment, treatment or pain relief.
Sources: European Day on Pain Awareness, European Pain Federation EFIC; Azevedo L. F. et al., Epidemiology of chronic pain: a population-based nationwide study on its prevalence, characteristics and associated disability in Portugal, The Journal of Pain, 2012; Azevedo L. F. et al., The economic impact of chronic pain: a nationwide population-based cost-of-illness study in Portugal, European Journal of Health Economics, 2016.
Frequently asked questions
When is the European Day on Pain Awareness 2026?
On 21 October 2026, a Wednesday. The day is held on the third Wednesday of October and is promoted by the European Pain Federation EFIC.
What is the theme of the European Day on Pain Awareness 2026?
«The Hidden Cost of Pain». EFIC focuses on chronic pain from the point of view of employment and productivity, and on what governments can do to keep people with pain in work.
How many people have chronic pain in Portugal?
The national study by Azevedo and colleagues, with data from 2007 and 2008, found chronic pain in 36.7% of Portuguese adults. The data are old, but they come from a representative sample of the adult population.
Does virtual reality reduce pain?
RVer does not make that promise. It is used as distraction during procedures and waits, and helps manage the pain and anxiety of those moments. It is not pain relief and does not replace any medication or any decision by the team.