Nearly 1 in 4 adults in the United States reported experiencing chronic pain, according to a 2023 survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Almost 1 in 10 reported that their daily life or work had been impacted by persistent, debilitating pain in the past three months, while the financial cost to the country of health care expenses and lost productivity can exceed hundreds of billions of dollars annually.
Why Chronic Pain Remains Difficult to Treat
Chronic pain is the most common reason that people seek medical care, yet barriers to effective treatment persist. According to Jianguo Cheng, medical director of the Cleveland Clinic Consortium for Pain in Ohio, chronic pain is a “complex mix of genetic, biological, and psychosocial dimensions that can cause ongoing pain out of proportion to the original limited injury that triggered it.” Martin Cheatle, director of behavioral medicine at Penn Pain Medicine Center, identified an aging population, obesity, and sedentary lifestyles as contributing factors to the condition’s increase.
Access to care presents a critical obstacle. Researchers at Boston University found that only 8% of people live in areas served by pain care specialists. In rural areas, compounding factors such as physically demanding jobs, shortages of health care providers, and higher poverty and uninsured rates make obtaining pain relief more challenging than in urban areas.
Disparities in Pain Management
Certain populations face additional barriers. American Indian and Alaska Native people are twice as likely to report chronic pain compared to Asian non-Hispanic and Hispanic adults, according to CDC data. Black men are less likely than white men to receive treatment or pain relief when seeking help for persistent pain. A 2022 study in Reproductive Science found that biases toward Black women prevented or delayed endometriosis diagnosis, making them 50% less likely to be diagnosed with this painful condition, which causes suffering for 4 to 11 years before diagnosis in many women.
Emerging Treatment Approaches
Recent progress has expanded treatment options beyond traditional pharmaceuticals. Heat therapy, cryotherapy, massage therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, and low-level electrical stimulation known as TENs have all been shown to reduce chronic pain, according to a 2023 article in the BMC Medicine journal. Patients may also benefit from nerve block treatments and spinal cord stimulation or learn self-managed pain relief skills. Complementary approaches have become increasingly important as American health care providers previously relied heavily on opioids, contributing to a public health crisis.
This article is an AI-assisted summary. All facts and figures are drawn from the original report: https://www.newsweek.com/chronic-pain-extremely-common-so-why-is-it-so-hard-to-get-relief-11701702