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Overview of Pain Management
Author(s) -
Schim Jack D.,
Stang Paul
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
pain practice
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.899
H-Index - 58
eISSN - 1533-2500
pISSN - 1530-7085
DOI - 10.1111/j.1533-2500.2004.04010.x
Subject(s) - citation , medicine , neurology , clinical neurology , library science , psychology , computer science , psychiatry , neuroscience
In the 21st century, pain has become the most common reason that patients seek medical attention, with as many as 50 million people in the United States experiencing chronic pain.1,2 The prevalence of chronic pain among adults in this country has been estimated to be as high as 40% among the general population, and from 45% to 80% among nursing home residents.3–5 Routinely, many chronic pain patients complain of failure to achieve adequate relief.5 A United Kingdom survey that obtained responses from 3605 of 5036 randomly sampled individuals aged 25 to 75 years indicated that the prevalence of self-reported chronic pain in men and women was about the same (48.9% and 51.8%, respectively). The most common types of chronic pain were back pain, pain associated with arthritis, pain due to injury, and angina-related pain.6 The prevalence of chronic pain appeared to increase with age in both sexes.6 Thus, the number of individuals with chronic pain, and the costs associated with this condition, can be expected to increase as the population ages. When these data are considered together, chronic pain emerges as a major public health problem.2,5