Where Is the Hurry to Help People With Chronic Pain?

By Carol Levy, PNN Columnist

Why is the United States and the rest of the world in such a hurry to get a vaccine against Covid-19?

Easy to answer: The virus is a killer. As of the writing of this column, the number of American deaths stands at over 237,000 and is rising daily. The number of infected is nearing 10 million. The effect on the economy has been tremendous. The use of medical resources is stretching a fragile system even thinner.

Why aren’t we in such a hurry to develop new treatments and drugs -- specifically non-opioid medications -- for chronic pain?

Hard to answer, given the similarities. Chronic pain is a killer. Some studies have shown that those who live with moderate to severe chronic pain have higher mortality rates than those who do not have painful disorders. Studies have also shown we have higher rates of suicide.

The economic costs of chronic pain in the U.S. are enormous. In 2010, estimates of lost productivity due to pain ranged from $299 to $335 billion. The total cost to the country was estimated to be up to $635 billion, more than the annual costs of heart disease, cancer and diabetes.

Treating chronic pain is also a burden on the health care system. Pain is one of the main reasons for medical appointments. We are often bounced from specialist to specialist to specialist – who often have difficulty diagnosing us or don’t want to be bothered treating us, especially in the face of the “opioid crisis.” The stress of untreated pain often leads to other health issues and diseases, which result in the use of even more medical resources.

Covid is contagious. That makes it more dangerous than chronic pain.

But it seems pain patients are also viewed as contagious. We’re often blamed as the major cause of the opioid epidemic. We allegedly abuse our prescribed opioids or give or sell them to others. We are so careless that others steal them from us. We are the “superspreaders.”

If Covid requires a quick answer due to its deadliness and economic and societal costs, then so too does the epidemic of chronic pain.

Carol Jay Levy has lived with trigeminal neuralgia, a chronic facial pain disorder, for over 30 years. She is the author of “A Pained Life, A Chronic Pain Journey.”  Carol is the moderator of the Facebook support group “Women in Pain Awareness.”