Chronic pain is a critical public health issue, and one that deeply affects the lives of millions. Pain thwarts careers, burdens families and inflicts physical and psychological damage.

What is Chronic Pain?

Chronic pain is pain that endures beyond the time tissue normally heals, or longer than 3 to 6 months.
Chronic pain damages the health, life and quality of life of those who suffer.
Chronic pain is a large umbrella category that ranges in severity and stems from diverse diseases or injuries. For example, it can be inflammatory or autoimmune based, or caused by damage or disease within the nervous system itself.

Why is Chronic Pain a Disease?

Acute pain serves a useful function, telling us that we need rest or seek care. Acute pain is a common response to surgery. But like other diseases, chronic pain damages the body and negatively effects nearly every organ and system. Chronic pain can also shorten life expectancy.

How common is Chronic Pain?

Chronic pain affects more Americans than any other disease, including cancer, heart disease or diabetes.
1 out of every 6 Americans experiences daily pain.
40 million Americans have severe pain, and nearly 20 million have pain that regularly prevents life and work activity.
Chronic pain is the no. 1 cause of disability.

Are clinicians educated in treating Chronic Pain?

Pain is a key feature of our most common diseases and one of the biggest reasons people seek medical care, but pain is poorly addressed in medical education.
Many clinicians receive only 9 hours on pain education. One study found only 4 US medical schools have a mandatory pain course.

Why is research on Chronic Pain important?

There is still so much we don’t understand about pain, including why it becomes chronic. New research, for example, found that different cells are involved in pain processing in male and female animals, which may help explain the different experiences of pain in people.

Existing treatments like opioids have been around for centuries and carry risks.

Research is important, yet pain represents a tiny fraction of the budget of the National Institutes of Health.

How is Chronic Pain treated?

The best treatment for chronic pain often combines different therapies, like medications, physical and psychological therapies, surgeries or nerve blocks, and treatments like massage.

Unfortunately, this multimodal care is not widely available and is poorly paid by insurers.

And too many people are left with ineffective pain care.

Can Chronic Pain affect anyone?

Chronic pain can affect anyone regardless of age, race or gender. Because pain is invisible and misunderstood, many pain patients are stigmatized, stereotyped, dismissed or disbelieved.

But pain disproportionately affects certain groups like women, people with disabilities, older Americans and Veterans, who face even greater barriers to care. People of color, for example, may have their pain rated lower by doctors and are more often perceived as drug seekers.

How does Chronic Pain affect the lives of those who suffer?

People with chronic pain may be isolated and unable to engage in life or work activities.
People living with chronic pain are also four times more likely to suffer from depression or anxiety, and have higher rates of suicide.

What are the economic costs of Chronic Pain?

Americans spend billions on treatments for pain that are often ineffective.
The cost to society, which ranges from direct costs to lost work, reaches upward of $638 billion a year.

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