Facts about Pain
Here are some facts about pain from the American Pain Foundation:
-Pain reflects an
interaction between an individual’s genetic make-up, current health, emotional
state, situation in which pain occurs, and past encounters with pain.
-75 million Americans suffer from chronic pain.
-The majority of those suffering with severe chronic pain do not have it under control. For those who do, it took 50% of them over a year to get their pain under control.
-Pain causes the majority of pain sufferers (68%) to feel anxious, irritable, or depressed.
-Adults age 45-64 years were the most likely to report pain lasting more than 24 hours (30%). 25% of adults between the ages of 20-44 reported pain and adults age 65 and over were the least likely to report pain (21%).
-More women (27.1%) than men (24.4%) reported that they were in pain.
-Non-Hispanic white adults (27.8%) reported pain more often than adults of other races and ethnicities, only 22.1% of Blacks and 15.3% of Mexicans.
-Adults living in families with income less than twice the poverty level reported pain more often than higher income adults.
-The annual cost of chronic pain in the
-An estimated 20% of American adults (42 million people)
report that pain or physical discomfort disrupts their sleep a 
few
nights a week or more.
-Respondents of a National Institute of Health Statistics survey indicated that low back pain was the most common (27%), followed by severe headache or migraine pain (15%), neck pain (15%), and facial ache or pain (4%).
-Gender is also a bias in pain assessment and treatment. Women seek help for pain more frequently than men, but are less likely to receive treatment. Physicians often assume either that women can handle more pain or that they are exaggerating the level of pain they experience. Women are more likely to be given sedatives (medicines used to calm people) for their pain while men are more likely to be given analgesics (medicine used to relieve pain).