Hundreds of millions of people around the world experience chronic pain – meaning pain that lasts longer than three months . While the numbers vary from country to country, most studies estimate that about 10% of the global population is affected, so more than 800 million people. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that in 2021, about 20% of U.
S. adults – or more than 50 million people – were experiencing chronic pain . Of those, about 7% experienced what’s called high-impact chronic pain , which is pain that substantially limits a person’s daily activities.
In the past, physicians have been quick to prescribe medication as an easy solution. But the opioid crisis in the U.S.
has led doctors to reevaluate their reliance on drugs and look at new treatments for patients with chronic pain. The Conversation spoke with Rachael Rzasa Lynn , a pain management specialist from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus for our podcast The Conversation Weekly . She explains some of the new developments in pain treatment and why there’s hope for patients with chronic pain.
What is the cause of chronic pain, at the most basic level? In general, pain is a complex interplay between tissue injury or inflammation, nerves and brain processing. There are several different biological processes that can result in pain. The one that’s happening to most people when they experience acute pain is called nociceptive pain .
This is pain that occurs when tissue.