Chronic Pain Incidence Is High in the U.S.
https://www.medpagetoday.com/neurology/painmanagement/104558
New cases of chronic pain — defined as pain experienced on most days or every day over 3 months — occurred more frequently than new cases of other common chronic conditions, U.S. survey data showed.
Chronic pain incidence was 52.4 cases per 1,000 person-years, reported Richard Nahin, MPH, PhD, of the NIH in Bethesda, Maryland, and co-authors.
This was higher than the incidence of diabetes (7.1 cases/1,000 person-years), depression (15.9 cases), and hypertension (45.3 cases), the researchers said in JAMA Network Openopens in a new tab or window.
Moreover, chronic pain was persistent: nearly two-thirds (61.4%) of adults with chronic pain in 2019 continued to have it in 2020.
The findings come from National Health Interview Survey (NHISopens in a new tab or window) data and are the first nationwide estimates of chronic pain incidence.
Recent NHIS data showed the prevalence of chronic painopens in a new tab or window in the U.S. was about 21%, affecting an estimated 51.6 million adults. High-impact chronic pain — pain severe enough to restrict daily activities — affected 17.1 million people.
“Understanding incidence, beyond overall prevalence, is critical to understanding how chronic pain manifests and evolves over time,” Nahin said in a statement. “These data on pain progression stress the need for increased use of multimodal, multidisciplinary interventions able to change the course of pain and improve outcomes for people.”
The NHIS is a cross-sectional poll conducted annually by the National Center for Health Statistics. Nahin and co-authors evaluated 10,415 adults who participated in both the 2019 and 2020 surveys. Participants with chronic pain during both periods were considered to have persistent chronic pain.
The sample included 51.7% women. More than half of the study population — 54% — were ages 18 to 49. Most participants (72.6%) were white; 16.5% were Hispanic and 12.2% were Black. Most (70.5%) were not college graduates.
At baseline (2019), 40.3% of participants reported no pain, 38.9% reported non-chronic pain, and 20.8% reported chronic pain.
Of those without pain in 2019, the rate of incident chronic pain was 52.4/1,000 cases (95% CI 44.9-59.9). The rate of incident high-impact chronic pain was 12.0 (95% CI 8.2-15.8). Lower educational attainment and older age were associated with higher rates of chronic pain in 2020, regardless of pain status in 2019.
In 2020, rates of persistent chronic pain and persistent high-impact chronic pain were 462.0 and 361.2 cases per 1,000 person-years, respectively.
Of those reporting non-chronic pain in 2019, 14.9% had progressed to chronic pain at follow-up. Of those reporting chronic pain in 2019, 10.4% had fully recovered (were pain-free) in 2020.
“Although chronic pain is sometimes assumed to persist indefinitely, our finding that 10.4% of adults with chronic pain experienced improvement over time is consistent with previous evidence from studies in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and the U.K., which revealed rates ranging from 5.4% to 8.7%,” the researchers noted.
The study did not include information about the underlying causes of pain and survey data were collected only twice across 2 years of follow-up, Nahin and co-authors acknowledged. It’s possible that people experiencing new or persistent chronic pain or high-impact chronic pain were less likely to participate in the 2020 follow-up survey, which may have led to rates being underestimated.
Filed under: General Problems
I can only go by my own experience. I had chronic pain from 1993 to 1995 a year & 1/2 while being diagnosed. Thankfully I was treated appropriately. Nobody was concerned about staying under a certain number of pain doses. I was treated well during and after surgery. I had a intravenous patient controlled medication that was removed when I requested it. I went home after 3 days and had enough medicine to last until my appointment 3 months later. I had a phone number to call if I needed it and I trusted my doctors. I didn’t need to call. I was healed enough to return to work.
Then I had new tumor/s growing in the same area. I had different symptoms because I was numb from the first surgery. It took a while to get diagnosed. Again they wanted to do surgery right away. This time they didn’t treat me correctly. I didn’t even know what I was in for. I had no idea I would have surgery and be left to suffer and die for all they cared.
They gave Valium and muscle relaxers after surgery instead of pain medicine. They did give small amounts of pain medication also but not around the clock and not near enough to control the pain. I had to ask for it and sometimes they would give it. They sent me home too soon after 5 days without a bed or commode. I was only able to walk slowly with a walker 20 steps on day 4 after physical therapy came & taught me. I was sent home the next day when my IV went bad. I had poor results. 5 years later I am still disabled and still need pain treatment. I have never been treated appropriately or as well as I was in 1995. I think this is why I still need pain medication and am still disabled. I know this because I couldn’t stand or walk longer than a minute for the first 2 1/2 years until I was given a certain amount of medicine. It wasn’t as much as I had in 1995 but I guess they felt like they were not allowed to treat me appropriately.
I think we are able to take responsibility for our own medication and treatment. We are, after all adults. We should be treated like the responsible adults we are. Not like people that don’t deserve compassion or ethical pain or medical treatment!
We need to turn the tide back around on this society. They need to know how many of their rights they are giving up. I am mad because I had no idea I would be treated less than an animal. If I had known I would have said ‘No’ to surgery. They are legally supposed to give informed consent. They gave me a blank computer screen to sign after waking up from a 3 day coma. My brain wasn’t functioning normal until a year later! I would like to know if there is an attorney that would take my case and the many other cases that I’ve been hearing about. I have a feeling the doctors are having the wool pulled over their eyes too! Just like I did.
U KNOW IT USE TO BE SOOO SIMPLE,,it worked ,,YOU GOT DIAGNOSES,,YOU GOT YOUR EFFECTIVE DOSE,,,GO HOME,,,SEEE U NEXT YEAR,,,4 ME 260.00$$$ DONE…….NOW,,,WE ALL KNOW,,THEIR JUST WILLFULLY TORTUREING AND KILLING US OFF,,AND ARRESTING ANY HUMANE DOCTORS,,,,MONEY,,,THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL IS $$$$$,,,WHEN USED BY TRULY EVIL PEOPLE,,,AND EVIL IS SUFFERABLE,,,,BUT WHEN THAT CRUELITY IS DONE BY DESIGN,,AS IT HAS BEEN DONE BY DESIGN,,TO EVOKE ABSOLUTE DESPOTISM,,ITS OUR DUTY AND OUR RIGHT TO FIGHT BACK AGAINST TORTUREING THE WEAKEST AMONST US,,,,THEY KNEW WE’D DIE,,,,BUT THEIR PREJUDICE TOWARDS A PILL,A MEDICINE,,OHHH THAT EVIL OPIATE,,JUSTIFIED IN THEIR MINDS,,THEY HAD THE RIGHT TO TORTURE US,,,THAT MINDSET IS CALLED ,,,DEMENTED,,” THOSE WHO DID THIS TO US ARE WRONG BECAUSE THEIR DENMENTED,,DELUSIONAL IN THEIR MINDS,,,FOR IT TRULY IS NO-ONES RIGHT TO TORTURE TO DEATH THE MEDICALLY ILL IN PHYSICAL PAIN,,,BUT THEY THOUGHT THEY HAD THAT RIGHT,,,,THEIR SICK IN THE HEAD,,,IE DEMENTED,DELUSIONAL,,MAYBE THE $$$$$ DID IT,,,BUT SOO WHAT,,,IT DOESN’T CHANGE THE FACT,,,,THEY REALLY THOUGHT THEY HAD THE RIGHT TO TORTURE ANOTHER HUMAN BEING,,,NO-ONE HAS THAT RIGHT,,,,ALLLLL SHOULD BE BROUGHT UP ON SEVERE CRIMNAL LEGAL CHARGES,,,FOR IF THERE ARE NO CONSEQUENCES FOR THEIR ACTION,,THEY’LL JUST DO IT AGAIN,,,,,JMO,,MARYW
Perhaps it’s because acute pain, left untreated leads to chronic pain. Why is this not disscusd? I know it was when I was in Medical School!
Well, it couldn’t possibly be because they’re no longer appropriately and adequately treating pain in post op and acute pain situations, something that most medical organizations used to acknowledge was paramount to avoiding complications, speeding healing times, and effectively deterring the development of CHRONIC PAIN….could it? SO weird. Ugh. The Hysteria Olympics make my brain hurt. It pains me that they can connect dots that don’t authentically connect in reality, but they can’t seem to figure it out when something they already knew to be true begins to manifest itself evidently because it directly contradicts the preferred narrative. If doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results is the definition of insanity, then pretending not to know something something that was formerly well understood because it’s an inconvenient truth, to the end that it results in a failure to take corrective action, must be the definition of insane delusion.