Some 39 million people in the United States (or 19 percent of us) have persistent pain. This is according to a recent study published in The Journal of Pain, a peer-review publication of the American Pain Society. Researchers at the Washington State University College of Nursing conducted the study and defined persistent pain as frequent or constant pain lasting longer than three months.
The authors noted that persistent pain correlated with other indices of health-related quality of life—such as anxiety, depression, and fatigue. Individuals with those conditions were far more likely to report persistent pain.
The authors concluded that measuring pain persistence has policy implications because persistent pain is an indicator of an unmet medical need for pain management in the general population, as well as a risk for anxiety and depression.
--Sarah Hagerty
