![\"woman](\"https:\/\/www.health.com\/thmb\/zr_5SEx8sBD7Zg4Ruqnt844iqho=\/1500x0\/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()\/Health-GettyImages-1369889835-82dbd10deba1478b806593a15dc00357.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
AsiaVision\/Getty Images<\/p>\n <\/span> \nChronic pain affects about one in five Americans\u2014new research shows that chronic pain incidence rates from year to year are higher than those for diabetes, hypertension, and depression.<\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n \nThe JAMA Network Open<\/em> study conducted a survey of about 10,400 adults between 2019 and 2020. They found that there were 52 cases of chronic pain for every 1000 people, and 12 cases of high-impact chronic pain, which refers to severe chronic pain that limits a person\u2019s life and work activities.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n \nThe survey also showed how chronic pain changed from year to year\u2014about 10% of people who had chronic pain in 2019 recovered in 2020. For those with nonchronic pain, about 15% had developed chronic pain within the year.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n \nThis research comes on the heels of a study published in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report<\/em> (MMWR<\/em>) from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which found that 51.6 million Americans had chronic pain in 2021. That\u2019s 20.9% of the adult population.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cI think this really brought to bear what we always suspected\u2014that chronic pain is extremely common,\u201d Afton Hassett, PsyD, associate professor of anesthesiology and director of clinical pain research at the University of Michigan Medical School, told Health<\/em>.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cWhen you start playing with the population numbers, we\u2019re talking about millions and millions of people,\u201d she clarified.\n<\/p>\n <\/span> <\/p>\n \nChronic pain has been on healthcare professionals\u2019 and researchers\u2019 minds for a while, explained Gregory Terman, MD, PhD, JAMA Network Open <\/em>study coauthor, pain physician, and professor of anesthesiology and pain medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine.\n<\/p>\n \nIn 2011, the Institute of Medicine (now called the National Academy of Medicine) estimated that about 100 million Americans lived with chronic pain, Dr. Terman told Health<\/em>. That number dropped thanks to a narrowed definition of chronic pain and additional research.\n<\/p>\n \nResearchers defined chronic pain as lasting more than three months and affecting a person every day or most days. People with high-impact chronic pain were characterized as meeting these criteria, but having such severe pain that it impacted their work or life most days.\n<\/p>\n \nDr. Terman and his team sought to understand the incidence rate for chronic pain from 10,415 survey responses. In 2019, about 40% didn\u2019t have any pain, 39% had nonchronic pain, and about 21% had chronic pain.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n \nLooking at the data a year later, the research team found that about two-thirds of people who had chronic pain in 2019 still did in 2020. About 15% of people with nonchronic pain and about 6% of those who were pain-free developed chronic pain by 2020.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n \nThe team took note of the spike in chronic pain percentage.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cFifty out of 1000 people had developed chronic pain from one year to the next, greater than lots of these other chronic diseases like depression or diabetes. That was the big thing,\u201d Dr. Terman said. \u201cIt\u2019s not just common, but it\u2019s developing at alarming rates.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nAdditionally, the study found that about 462 out of 1000 people had persistent chronic pain from 2019 to 2020.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n Understanding Pain Scales and How to Use Them<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span> <\/p>\n \nThough this study and the CDC\u2019s report offer good estimates for how common chronic pain really is in the U.S., it can be challenging to quantify.\n<\/p>\n \nEven though just shy of 21% of people in the JAMA Network Open <\/em>study had chronic pain\u2014in line with the MMWR<\/em> study\u2019s findings\u2014Hassett noted that it\u2019s possible that chronic pain prevalence is even higher.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n \nNeither study included participants who were in the military or in institutions, such as nursing homes.<\/span><\/span> One would imagine that chronic pain would be an issue in these groups, Hassett explained.\n<\/p>\n \nAnd, just generally speaking, it can be challenging to track chronic pain.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cWe don\u2019t have tests. There\u2019s really no way for us to truly quantify it, other than what an individual\u2019s report is,\u201d said Hassett.\n<\/p>\n \nThe JAMA Network Open<\/em> study didn\u2019t find gender disparities in chronic pain. But gender norms play a large role in the conception of pain, and could account for under-reporting or under-treating. Men may see chronic pain as feminine and reject diagnoses or treatments, and women are less likely than men to have their pain believed.<\/span><\/span> The same is true for racial minority groups.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n \nBesides difficulties in the tracking of chronic pain itself, researchers also don\u2019t know why chronic pain seems to be growing more common in the U.S. We can only speculate if more people are becoming aware of chronic pain or more willing to report it, or if lifestyle or other factors are causing more chronic pain.\n<\/p>\n \nThe pandemic may be having an effect, Dr. Terman said\u2014depression, anxiety, and chronic pain are all linked, he explained, so increased mental health issues may have exacerbated chronic pain.\n<\/p>\n \nThe population is also aging, Hassett noted, which could explain why chronic pain seems to be more prevalent.\n<\/p>\n \nFor now, however, we can only speculate as to what might be causing what seems to be an increase in the prevalence of chronic pain\u2014no research has answered that question yet, experts agreed.\n<\/p>\n 8 Health Conditions That Cause Joint Pain<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span> <\/p>\n \nBecause there are still so many questions about chronic pain, it can be a frustrating or difficult diagnosis for people to receive.\n<\/p>\n \nHowever, Dr. Terman and Hassett agreed, it isn\u2019t all bad.\n<\/p>\n \nThe National Institutes of Health are working on an initiative called HEAL (Helping to End Addiction Long-term), which has allocated $2 billion toward research in pain management and opioid use disorders.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n \nPlus, more new research recorded electrical signals in the brain associated with chronic pain, giving researchers a better understanding of how chronic pain works and possibly even opening the door for more personalized and accurate therapies.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cPain is one of the most common reasons adults seek medical care in the United States," Michaela Rikard, PhD, MMWR author and health scientist in the division of overdose prevention at the CDC, told Health<\/em> in a statement. "Addressing chronic pain and improving the lives of persons living with pain is a public health imperative.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nEven in Dr. Terman\u2019s study, there were some positive findings that shouldn\u2019t be overlooked.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cWe were able to show that 10% of people who had chronic pain in the first year were actually pain-free in the second year,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat we don\u2019t have is how they were treated. But at least here\u2019s a little bit of hope there.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nThere are treatments that can be really effective in helping people manage pain, Hassett added. Depending on a person\u2019s level of pain, they can utilize physical therapy, medications, or other interventions such as injections, she explained. The CDC has resources for healthcare providers that's meant to make pain treatment safer and more effective, especially when it comes to using opioid therapy.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n \nExercise and trying to commit to a healthy lifestyle is also important, Hassett said. People may experience some pain relief from meditation, massage, yoga, spinal manipulation, or acupuncture.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cPeople tend to withdraw when they have chronic pain and no longer do the things that make life worth living,\u201d Hassett said. \u201cWe have sleep disturbances and everything becomes a downward spiral. So we try to get people to get active again, to find the things that they can do, that they do enjoy doing.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nDr. Terman concluded, \u201cJust because you have chronic pain, doesn\u2019t necessarily mean that you can\u2019t become pain-free.\u201d\n<\/p>\n CDC Releases New Prescription Opioid Guidelines for Treating Pain<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A new study found that chronic pain is more common than diabetes, hypertension, and depression. Frustratingly, chronic pain is difficult to diagnose and track. Experts agree that while chronic pain may be tricky to diagnose, understanding patterns around the condition are helpful in treating it on a larger scale. AsiaVision\/Getty Images Chronic pain affects about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17205,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[939,410],"tags":[940,116],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/1millionbestdownloads.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17205"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/1millionbestdownloads.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/1millionbestdownloads.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1millionbestdownloads.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1millionbestdownloads.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/1millionbestdownloads.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17205\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1millionbestdownloads.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/1millionbestdownloads.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1millionbestdownloads.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1millionbestdownloads.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Painting a Picture of Chronic Pain in the U.S. <\/span> <\/h2>\n
Chronic Pain Is an Individual Experience <\/span> <\/h2>\n
Positive Findings and Opportunities for Treatment <\/span> <\/h2>\n