At least 116 million adult Americans experience chronic pain every year, according to an Institute of Medicine report released Wednesday.
That’s more than the total affected by heart disease, cancer and diabetes combined — and it costs the nation up to $635 billion a year in medical treatment and lost productivity.
Much of the pain is preventable or could be better managed, the committee that wrote the report added.
“Pain is a major health problem in America,” committee chair Philip Pizzo, a dean and professor at Stanford University School of Medicine, said in a news release. “All too often, prevention and treatment of pain are delayed, inaccessible or inadequate. Patients, health care providers and our society need to overcome misperceptions and biases about pain.”
That includes the role of pain self-management, said Dr. Michael Levin from the Sacramento Pain Clinic.
“Patients unfortunately look to doctors to cure their pain,” Levin said. “In fact, chronic pain is not going to be cured. It needs to be managed, including self-management.”
That means learning to cope with chronic pain, how to prevent re-injury and ways to live as normal a life as possible.
Training programs for dentists, nurses, doctors and other health professionals should include pain education in their curricula and promote interdisciplinary training, the committee concluded.
A recent study found that only five of the nation’s 133 medical schools have required courses on pain and just 17 offer elective courses.
UC Davis School of Medicine has no stand-alone courses but pain management is included in all doctoring coursework, university spokesman Charlie Casey said. Third- and fourth-year medical students can chose a rotation on pain management at the hospital, too.
Successful treatment requires an integrated approach that responds to all the factors that influence pain, which range from genes to stress, depression and other cultural and emotional factors — something health insurers are reluctant to pay for.
Instead, a lot of pain is managed my opiates, causing other problems.
“Demand (for pain management) is about the same, but I’m certainly seeing more demand for detox services,” Levin said.
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