How many people suffer from CRPS?

The Epidemiology team in TREND has gathered a lot of data on incidence en prevalence of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) in the general population in The Netherlands.

The following information has been found:
• each year, approximately 26 out of 100,000 people develop CRPS: this means we have approximately 4300 new cases of CRPS each year in the Netherlands;
• women are at least 3 times more likely than men to develop CRPS (1:3.4)
• the disease is more coomon among adults than children, although children can also suffer from CRPS;
• the highest incidence is in women in the age category of 61-70 years;
• arms are affected more frequently than legs;
• a fracture is the most common precipating event (44%).

The figure below clearly showes that CRPS is most common in the 50+ age group, and that women (continued line) suffer from CRPS more often than men (dotted line).

If you are interested in the study underlying these figures: De Mos M, de Bruijn AG, Huygen FJ, Dieleman JP, Stricker BH, Sturkenboom MC. (2006) The incidence of complex regional pain syndrome: A population-based study. Pain 129(1): p.12-20.