May 8, 2024 By Paula O'Connell 5 min read

I’ll admit I used to inwardly roll my eyes and try to change the subject when people would start to talk about pain.

But all that changed when I personally became aware of just how debilitating chronic pain can be. I developed a new understanding and compassion for those who live with pain on a regular basis.

The outer world disappears when you are wrapped in a blanket of pain, and until that pain recedes, you’re caught in a world of isolation, unable to move away from your ice pack, your medication or both. The worst part about it is the unpredictability of when that pain will strike next, making it nearly impossible to plan or carry out even the simplest of daily activities.

The definition of chronic pain is pain lasting more than three months and affecting a person on most days. In the U.S., alone, 51.6 million adults, roughly 21% of the population, live behind the dark curtain of chronic pain. All told, 17 million people live with high impact pain, which restricts their ability to work or perform daily activities.

According to the American Medical Association, growth in chronic pain is exceeding the growth of other major conditions, such as hypertension, diabetes and depression. And here’s the bad news for baby boomers – 53% of those suffering chronic pain are aged 75 or older. One-third of those with heart disease also suffer chronic pain.

Even more bad news for us ladies – women and girls suffer chronic pain more frequently and more intensely than men do, according to both the National Center for Pain and Harvard Medical School. Of those painful conditions, 70% of them impact women more than men.

Yet 80% of all pain studies currently being conducted are carried out on either men only, or on male mice. I don’t know about you, but I sure would breathe easier if more human women than male mice were enrolled in pain studies!

Harvard Medical School researchers have found that most diseases, as well, are based on the understanding of male physiology, which is why women in emergency rooms typically wait 65 minutes to men’s 49 minutes before receiving medication for abdominal pain.

There is definitely an economic as well as an emotional impact on pain sufferers, who are often filled with anxiety and depression, which can actually worsen the pain.

In 2023, the workforce consisted of 75.5 million women. Of these women, 82% were mothers of children aged between 6 and 17, and 77% were mothers with children under age 6. Others were older women, who may suffer chronic pain at higher numbers. Working women who are mothers and pain sufferers face a potential loss of financial stability as well as a more stressful lifestyle as they try to juggle work, family life, and pain management. Research for chronic pain, particularly on women pain sufferers, needs to be addressed.

These are disturbing statistics when one considers the number of days lost at work and the amount of better job opportunities lost due to chronic pain.

There are some approaches that can help control pain, but the information needs to get into the people’s hands, and we need to pay for it, according to Sean Mackey, who studies pain medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine. More answers are needed for the hundreds and thousands of affected Americans and their families – answers beyond a prescription for pain pills that can have devastating side effects on the body, not to mention addiction.

The majority of funding for pain medicine research remains focused on opioid use, misuse and addiction. But this does not fund research to help millions suffering from such common conditions as rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis and fibromyalgia.

The lack of funding for research in pain intervention and the development of effective treatments for chronic pain conditions is unacceptable and shameful. There is, however, hope for positive change.

Last September, a bipartisan bill was introduced in the U.S. Senate that would direct the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to regularly collect, analyze, share and report critical information on chronic pain. Senate Bill 2922, the Advancing Research for Chronic Pain Act of 2023, would help researchers to develop better alternatives than the use of addictive opioids to battle chronic pain. A similar bill, HR 7164, was introduced in the U.S, House of Representatives.

These bills need to be brought to the floor of both chambers for a vote, to help fund deeper research on chronic pain treatment and prevention. There is one small thing I can do to help bring about positive change in this area. I am planning to write to U.S. Sen. Bob Casey – in this case, the sponsor of the Senate bill – and each of the co-sponsors for both bills, urging them to continue their efforts to bring Senate Bill 2922 and HR Bill 7164 to the floor.

Perhaps if we all flood their offices with letters of support, these life-saving bills can finally be brought up for a vote and can become law. A healthier and more pain-free future for us all just might depend on it.

Paula O’Connell is a Uniontown resident, a former teacher in Fayette and Westmoreland counties, and a former reporter with the Connellsville Courier.