A 2023 report from the CDC serves as a stark reminder of just how prevalent chronic pain is. At the time, the CDC estimated that some 51 million adults experienced chronic pain lasting for more than three months in 2021. Just over seventeen million reported high impact chronic pain. None of this is good news, but the fact that treating pain is so difficult only makes a bad situation worse.
Why is treating pain so challenging? First and foremost, it is highly complex. In most cases, pain is a symptom of another disease or injury. But there are cases in which pain is the condition itself. Think fibromyalgia as just one example.
Pain is so complex that doctors can now pursue a specialty in pain medicine. Pain medicine doctors learn about a variety of treatments that go above and beyond physical therapy, prescription medications, injection therapies, and surgical procedures.
Pain Is Highly Subjective
One could point to any number of reasons explaining why pain is such a complex medical issue. At the very top of the list would be the fact that pain is highly subjective. So much so that there is no test to measure it – at least in the same vein as a blood test that can identify diabetes.
Doctors are forced to rely on patient reporting. They ask patients a series of questions about their pain and then apply the answers to a predetermined scale. This is how they determine how much pain a patient is in. Yet it is not a very accurate measurement for the simple fact that people perceive pain differently.
Personally, I have a very high pain threshold. Blood draws barely affect me. They do not cause enough pain for me to even worry about. Yet they are extremely painful to my wife. It is the same procedure, but the pain experience is different for the both of us.
The Physical and Mental Link
The fact that pain is highly subjective adds credence to the theory that there is a link between the physical experience of pain and what a patient thinks about that pain. As an example, a person afraid of significant pain during an injection is likely to experience the pain as expected. The opposite is also true.
How we think and feel about pain partially influences the pain experience. So much so that clinics like Utah’s KindlyMD.com combine state-issued Medical Cards with both traditional medications and alternative medicine, complemented by mental health treatments. By treating both the pain experience and a patient’s mental health, clinicians can minimize pain to some degree. That is the goal.
Even with the mental-physical link, healthcare providers are still faced with the reality that people experience pain differently. Pain thresholds are different. So are the physical feelings associated with pain. What you feel as a throbbing pain might be described as a stabbing pain by someone else. A pain that could have you doubled over might barely be a blip on someone else’s radar.
As Many Options as Possible
When all is said and done, the complexities of treating pain suggest that we need as many options as possible. Settling on prescription drugs, physical therapy, and surgical procedures as the only legitimate means of treating chronic pain just doesn’t make sense. Pain’s individualized nature suggests that individualized treatment plans are more appropriate.
Successful pain management doctors have my respect, especially when they do not rely on the prescription pad to treat every patient. Those willing to look at all the alternatives are more likely to help their patients get a handle on chronic pain. That is the way it should be.