http://goo.gl/0RUq68
Nearly one in five U.S. adults are in pain most every day for spells of three months or longer, according to an analysis by Jae Kennedy, professor of health policy and administration at Washington State University Spokane. The estimated 39 million adults in persistent pain outnumber the residents of California.
Previous studies have said so much pain costs hundreds of billions of dollars a year in lost productivity and health care. And that doesn't take into account pain's psychic toll.
"A sizeable portion of American adults are dealing with persistent pain and that's affecting their lives profoundly," said Kennedy. "Access to good pain management for this population is limited, and there's a real risk that taking short-term pain medications for a long period of time will lead to dependency or addiction."