About MSH/03

Why Chronic Pain?

• It affects a huge number of people and is very costly
• According to the American Academy of Pain Medicine, more than 1.5 billion people around the world have chronic pain. It's the most common cause of long-term disability in the United States, affecting about 100 million people.
• Between the cost of treatment and lost productivity, chronic pain costs the US economy alone around US$635 billion per year
• It has significant impacts on and interactions with mental health
• Research indicates there are strong links between anxiety, depression and chronic physical illness
• Almost one in three adults with severe or very severe pain have high or very high levels of psychological distress
• 44.6% of sufferers also live with depression
• Multidisciplinary pain management has been shown to drive clinically meaningful reductions in depression (57% of users) and anxiety (41%)
• There remain significant issues around access to multidisciplinary support for chronic pain
• There is a significant evidence base around the use of psychological therapies and hypnotherapy for chronic pain sufferers - for example, in Australia, usage of multidisciplinary pain management (as opposed to just pharmaceutical management via opioids) allowed almost half of all patients to reduce their opioid usage by 50% or more