Chronic Pain More Common Than Diabetes And Depression

diabetes chronic painNew data from the National Institutes of Health found that new cases of chronic pain are being reported at higher rates than diabetes, depression and high blood pressure.

The research, based on data from an annual survey form the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, surveyed adults on how often they experienced pain in the previous three months. In the survey, chronic pain was defined as having pain on most days or every day over that three-month period. The results were then compared to the responses of more than 10,000 respondents in 2019 and 2020. Researchers then worked to determine the rate of new cases that developed over that period using a metric called person-years, which took into account the number of people in the study and the amount of time between survey responses.

An analysis of the data found that new chronic pain cases were developing at an alarming rate. Researchers found that there 52 new cases of chronic pain per 1,000 person-years, which outpaced the rate of new cases of high blood pressure (45 new cases per 1,000 person-years). The chronic pain rate was also far higher than the new case rate of depression and diabetes. The team also noted that of those without any pain in 2019, 6.3 percent reported new chronic pain in 2020.

“What we’re finding is, to nobody’s surprise, we have an astounding problem of pre-existing chronic pain in this country and a huge amount of people who are developing chronic pain as each year goes by,” said Dr. Sean Mackey, chief of pain medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine, who wasn’t involved in the research.

Concerning Data On Chronic Pain

High blood pressure is still more prevalent, but chronic pain is closing the gap as new cases outpace hypertension. Data shows that around 48 percent of adults had high blood pressure between 2017 and 2020, while 21 percent of the more than 10,000 surveyed adults reported chronic pain. That outpaces the 19 percent of U.S. adults with depression, and the rates of diabetes, heart disease and asthma, which all sit under 10 percent.

So while high blood pressure may still be a greater threat to the nation as a whole, the findings on chronic pain should be eye opening on a national level. It is great to see that this study is getting attention from large outlets like The New York Times, USA Today and NBC News, but covering the issue is only part of the puzzle. We also need to commit a lot more funding to treatment-focused studies. Understanding that chronic pain is a problem is helpful, but now that the national burden is under the spotlight, we need to put resources towards improving our understanding of how to best treat this highly individualized condition.

Another silver lining to take away from this study is the knowledge that if you are suffering from chronic pain, you certainly aren’t alone. More new cases are being diagnosed than many other serious conditions, and while that’s not great news in and of itself, it does mean that it should be easier to connect with others and with doctors who are familiar with your plight.

If you have questions about chronic pain or a condition that you’re battling, let us be a resource. Reach out to Dr. Cohn and his team today at (952) 738-4580.

Drinking To Cope With Chronic Pain May Lead To Worse Pain

chronic pain alcoholAlcohol has a number of effects on our brain and body, and while it may be able to seemingly drown out some pain sensations in a very short-term manner, it’s obvious that turning to alcohol is not a smart or healthy way to cope with your chronic pain condition. That sentiment only becomes more true on the heels of a new study that found that turning to alcohol to cope with chronic pain can actually lead to worsening pain sensations.

Chronic Pain And Alcohol Use

To get a better understanding of the effects of alcohol and pain perception, researchers turned their attention to three groups of mice. One group was dependent on alcohol (excessive drinkers), another had limited access to alcohol (moderate drinkers), and the final group had never been given alcohol. The mice then had their access to alcohol restricted before having it reintroduced.

Researchers found that in mice that were dependent on alcohol, allodynia was a common symptom during alcohol withdrawal. Allodynia is a condition in which a normally harmless nerve stimulus is perceived as painful by the brain. In other words, the mice going through withdrawals were more likely to experience phantom pain.

Interestingly when these mice were reintroduced to alcohol, pain sensitivity decreased, which would likely only continue to worsen a dependency issue. However, that decrease in pain sensitivity was not the same across the board. About half of the mice in the moderate groups showed signs of increased pain sensitivity during alcohol withdrawal, but they did not see pain sensitivity decrease when reintroduced to alcohol.

Additionally, when researchers measured the level of inflammatory proteins in the animals, they discovered that specific inflammatory molecules were only increased in dependent mice. This suggests that different molecular mechanisms may be driving the two types of pain, but on a positive note, it may make it easier to create medications that targets these specific proteins.

“These two types of pain vary greatly, which is why it is important to be able to distinguish between them and develop different ways to treat each type,” said study first author Vittoria Borgonetti, PhD, a postdoctoral associate at Scripps Research.

The team hopes that their findings and their future research will be make it easier for medical experts to help treat chronic pain conditions that are being fueled or worsened by alcohol.

“Our goal is to unveil new potential molecular targets that can be used to distinguish these types of pain and potentially be used in the future for the development of therapies,” said co-senior author Nicoletta Galeotti, PhD, associate professor of preclinical pharmacology at the University of Florence.

So not only is alcohol unhelpful at treating the underlying cause of chronic pain, it can actually increase your risk of phantom pain signals. Instead of turning to alcohol, turn to a pain care provider like Dr. Cohn. We’re confident we can find the right treatment option for your unique pain condition. For more information, or to set up an appointment with Dr. Cohn, give his office a call today at (952) 738-4580.

Could Dad Be To Blame For Chronic Pain Woes?

Sartell Injury DoctorA study out of Japan suggests that how parents bond with their children during adolescence could impact the child’s likelihood of developing chronic pain later in life.

Furthermore, the study suggests that children who had a poor bond with their father were the only group to show a significant increase in chronic pain likelihood.

The goal of the study was to better understand chronic pain as a complex biopsychosocial condition and how outside psychosocial factors like pain, pain-related fear, self-efficacy, anxiety, depression and psychological distress feed into that perception of pain.

For their study, researchers polled nearly 800 adults about their relationship with their parents and their overall health. Participants completed the Parental Bonding Instrument, a self-administered questionnaire that assessed perceived parental bonding, as well as a health assessment. The PBI test asked respondents several questions about their relationship with their parents growing up, including questions about the perceived level of bonding, over/underparenting, affection and discipline as well as control and understanding. Participants took the survey twice, once while contemplating their relationship with their father and the next while answering questions about their mother.

After comparing the PBI results with the results from the health exam, researchers uncovered:

  • Compared to the optimal bonding group, the odds ratio for having chronic pain was much higher in the affectionless control group for paternal bonding and for maternal bonding.
  • When adjusting for other factors, significance remained only for parental bonding.

“The fact that fathers have been shown to be much more likely to use physical punishment and abuse than mothers in several epidemiological studies may also be related to these findings,” the study authors wrote. “Clearly, further studies are needed to elucidate the mechanism(s) whereby parental care affects the development of chronic pain in a gender-dependent fashion.”

Researchers concluded by saying that mass-education on parenting behaviors for optimal bonding may be one of the most promising chronic pain prevention techniques that few are pursuing.