Report: 116 million Americans in pain

Persistent pain that lasts weeks to years is an overlooked medical problem that affects more than 116 million people nationwide and needs to be the focus of a public health campaign, doctors said Wednesday.

Physicians reporting in the New England Journal of Medicine cited a long list of concerns, including lack of access to pain-management specialists and inadequate consumer education about pain treatment, that they believe is causing people to suffer needlessly.

Authors of the report are calling on the medical community to educate more doctors capable of treating people experiencing long-term, intractable pain.

"That's like 1 in 3 Americans in pain and that estimate is not far off the mark, based on what I am seeing," said Dr. Brian Durkin, director of the Center for Pain Management at Stony Brook University Medical Center.

"It's a little shocking when you think about 1 out of 3 people being in pain. But I am getting calls every day," added Durkin. "People are not looking for narcotics; they're looking for pain relief."

Dr. Philip Pizzo, dean of Stanford University's medical school, wrote the report, which is based on research he led last year as chairman of an Institute of Medicine panel. The institute is the health division of the National Academy of Sciences and is chartered by Congress to investigate health concerns.

Pizzo said round-the-clock acute and chronic pain affects adults and children, and that there is misunderstanding and insensitivity about persistent pain by physicians and the public.

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With fewer than 4,000 pain specialists nationwide, Pizzo said it's time for primary care physicians to step up and help address what he calls a nationwide epidemic.

Durkin said about 50 million people undergo surgery annually in the United States, and many of those patients account for those in acute pain.

The vast number of people who make up the millions in long-term discomfort generally suffer from persistent headaches, and neck and lower-back pain, he said.

"So 116 million is not that crazy a number," Durkin said. "Our population is getting older, and people are having problems."

Dr. Lewis Nelson, an emergency medicine specialist and clinical toxicologist at NYU Medical Center in Manhattan said he doesn't buy the estimate that nearly 1 in 3 Americans are in pain. He also doesn't think there's a shortage of pain management specialists.

"If there is so much pain, why are we just now finding out about it? Why weren't people in pain 25 years ago?" Nelson asked."Why is this problem cropping up in the 2010s?"

Nelson said the estimate of millions of people in chronic pain is not only overblown, it overlooks the epidemic of prescription painkiller abuse. He said the pain epidemic can be plotted along a graph that also shows a rise in the worldwide proliferation of narcotic pain pills.

Nelson said he too often sees the flip side of pain treatment: people who have overdosed on prescription pain medication.

"To say that people in pain are not being treated overlooks those who are being overmedicated -- and dying," he said.

Numbers & issues

-Long-term pain treatment costs the U.S. $560 billion to $635 billion

-50 million people in the U.S. undergo surgery, many of them account for acute pain.

-Some physicians over-prescribe medications while others refuse to prescribe them fearing violations of local or state regulations.

Sources: New England Journal of Medicine, and Institute of Medicine Report