Chronic pain affects billions of people. The time for revolution has come.

“Initially, everyone thought we would find a breakthrough painkiller to replace opioids,” Gerow said. However, chronic pain such as cancer may involve a variety of genetic and cellular factors that vary depending on both the symptoms and the specific makeup of the person experiencing the pain. is being increasingly considered. “What we're learning is that pain is not just one thing,” Gerow added. “It's a thousand different things, all called 'pain.'”

Chronic pain situations are very diverse for patients as well. Some people endure agonizing back pain for years, only to have it go away for no apparent reason. Some people are not so lucky. A friend of a friend spent five years with extreme pain in his arms and face after a rough life with his son. He had to stop working and was unable to drive or even ride in a car without a neck brace. His doctor prescribed maximum doses of gabapentin plus duloxetine and other endless medications. At one point, the pain was so severe that he had suicidal thoughts and was admitted to a psychiatric ward. There he also met people who became suicidal after living in severe pain every day for years.

What makes chronic pain so bad is that it's chronic, meaning it's never-ending suffering. For someone in extreme pain, that's easy to understand. But even less severe cases can be devastating. A pain rating of 3 or 4 out of 10 may seem mild, but being in pain almost constantly is exhausting and limiting. Broken arms get better, tendonitis is painful primarily due to overuse, but chronic pain can make your whole world shrink. It becomes difficult to work, exercise, and even do the many small things that make life rewarding and enriching.

That's sad too. When my arm first went wrong, I could barely function. But even after the worst was over, I rarely saw my friends. I still couldn't drive for more than a few minutes, couldn't sit comfortably in a chair, and felt guilty about having people over when I had nothing to do. “The Chronic Pain Research Alliance is proud to be a leader in chronic pain research. What people don't realize is that when you have chronic pain, even if you're on medication, you're unlikely to feel the same pain as you used to. At best, it can relieve the pain, but it usually cannot eliminate it. ”

The cruel catch-22 with chronic pain is that it often causes anxiety and depression, both of which can make the pain worse. This is partly because focusing on one thing strengthens it, but also because your emotional state has physical effects. Anxiety and depression are both known to increase inflammation, which can also make pain worse. As a result, pain management often includes cognitive behavioral therapy, meditation practices, or other coping skills. But while these tools are essential, reprogramming our responses is notoriously difficult. Our minds and bodies have evolved to anticipate pain and remember it, making it difficult not to worry. Chronic pain can also be depressing because it can be very uncomfortable and isolating.