In the US alone, chronic pain affects one in three people – more than heart disease, cancer, and diabetes combined – and costs more than $600 billion annually. But the subjective, contextual nature of chronic pain means that it is often difficult to treat – and easy to treat the wrong way.
BALTIMORE – Pain is ubiquitous in life. Inextricably bound to consciousness, it is an experience that all living creatures with advanced nervous systems share. For our ancestors, whose lives were fraught with danger, pain conferred an evolutionary advantage, signaling the need to separate oneself from its immediate source. But evolution has failed to keep pace with biomedical and technological advances, allowing chronic pain (pain that persists beyond an acute injury or condition) to become a disease in itself.
BALTIMORE – Pain is ubiquitous in life. Inextricably bound to consciousness, it is an experience that all living creatures with advanced nervous systems share. For our ancestors, whose lives were fraught with danger, pain conferred an evolutionary advantage, signaling the need to separate oneself from its immediate source. But evolution has failed to keep pace with biomedical and technological advances, allowing chronic pain (pain that persists beyond an acute injury or condition) to become a disease in itself.