A leading pain authority has declared on Friday that about 80% of people, who have been suffering from chronic pain, are suffering unnecessarily and not getting rid of the pain.

"This has gone on for too long. Pain has been regarded as a simple problem. It must be recognized as a disease in its own right", said Australian Anesthesiologist Michael Cousins.

Michael Cousins was the man behind the first International Pain Summit, which was held at the 13th World Congress on Pain, in Montreal.

In Australia, as much as $34 billion is being spent on health-care costs in a year, said Cousins a Director of the Pain Management Research Institute, in Sydney.

In March, he helped in making the national pain management strategy for Australia. Cousins is also the Chairman of the international steering committee, which is drafting the Montreal Declaration on pain.

He said that one in five people suffer from pain, which stays back for more than three months and a third of them become as disable as a patient who has had a heart failure.

The international steering committee, which is drafting the Montreal Declaration on pain, has an objective of notifying the authorities throughout the world to take some action on inadequate pain policies.