According to a recent Institute of Medicine Re- port: Relieving Pain in America: A Blueprint for Transforming Prevention, Care, Education, and Research, pain is a significant public health prob- lem that costs society at least $560-$635 billion annually, an amount equal to about $2,000 for everyone living in the U.S. This includes the total incremental cost of health care due to pain from ranging between $261 to $300 billion and $297-$336 billion due to lost productivity (based on days of work missed, hours of work lost, and lower wages). While acute pain is a normal sensation triggered in the nervous system to alert you to possible in- jury and the need to take care of yourself, chronic pain is different, according to the AAPM. Chronic pain persists. Pain signals keep firing in the ner- vous system for weeks, months, even years. Chronic pain has many causes There may have been an initial mishap – sprained back, serious infection, or there may be an ongo- ing cause of pain – arthritis, cancer, ear infection, but some people suffer chronic pain in the absence of any past injury or evidence of body damage. Many chronic pain conditions affect older adults. Common chronic pain complaints include head- ache, low back pain, cancer pain, arthritis pain, neurogenic pain (pain resulting from damage to the peripheral nerves or to the central nervous system itself). A recent market research report indicates that more than 1.5 billion people worldwide suffer from chronic pain and that approximately 3- 4.5 percent of the global population suffers from neuropathic pain, with incidence rate increasing in complementary to age. Because much more needs to be done to meet these challenges, raising public awareness of the chronic pain problem is one of the missions of the AAPM.
Pain is a significant health problem that costs society at least $560 to $635 billion annually.
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