Key Findings

1. Chronic pain has devastating consequences on function, quality of life, and mental health.

• More than half (52%) said their average pain level is 7 or more on a scale of 1-10.
• 99% said pain has restricted their ability to engage in routine activities, like exercise, household chores, sleeping, and socializing.
• 95% of respondents had at least one comorbidity.
• More than two-thirds (71%) of respondents said they considered themselves disabled.
• Only 18% are employed full-time.
• 60% said they feel anxiety-like symptoms daily or a few times a week, and a similar portion (59%) feel depression-like symptoms daily or a few times a week.
• 79% said they feel stigmatized because of pain.

2. At best, people with pain feel their health care providers are not equipped to manage their pain effectively; at worst, people with pain feel unsupported and stigmatized.

• Approximately 63% of respondents felt stigmatized by their providers.
• Patients report that core competencies expected of providers treating pain are lacking.
  • 24% “rarely” or “never” felt validated or listened to; 
  • 69% either did not feel, or only “rarely” or “sometimes” felt that their provider was on a team with them; and, 
  • 53% answered “no” or only “sometimes” when asked if their provider helped them understand options for managing their pain.
• When asked about their top pain policy issue, the most common answer was increased pain education for providers (41%), tied with wanting new medications for chronic pain.
• 71% of caregivers said “provider attitudes” are the top barrier to care.

3. Medications remain the most effective treatment option, but people with pain face significant barriers in accessing certain drugs.

• Nearly all respondents (79%) currently take prescription medications.
• A majority (77%) said prescription medications are the most helpful treatment in managing their pain.
• One-quarter (24%) said no side effect would prevent them from trying a medication to manage pain.
• Nearly half of respondents take opioid medications (47%), although three-quarters of that group report a range of substantial barriers to obtaining their medications. Barriers faced by those taking opioid medications include: decreased doses, stigmatization, and providers refusing to fill medications or outright refusing to treat the person with pain at all. 
• Nearly all (94%) of those taking opioids said they attribute these barriers to the 2016 CDC opioid guideline.
• Roughly one-fifth (19%) of people with pain currently use medical cannabis. 
• 43% of individuals in states where it is illegal said they would try medical cannabis if it were legalized.

4. Multidisciplinary approaches, particularly self-management techniques, are under-recognized components of effective pain management.

• Multidisciplinary approaches were widely employed, with the top strategies including activity restriction or modification (73%), stress reduction techniques (42%), heat therapy (41%), and meditation and mindfulness (40%).
• Activity restriction or modification is the most-used specific “therapy” of any kind across all categories, aside from prescription medications as an entire category (79%). 
• Similarly, prescriptions were reported as the most helpful category of treatment (77%); self-management techniques as a whole were next at 31%, above OTC medications (27%), assistive devices or braces (24%), supplements, vitamins, or herbs (22%), medical cannabis (21%), mind-body and behavioral health options (20%), and interventional procedures and surgeries (17%).
• Less than one-fifth (19%) of people with pain had heard of the Pain Management Best Practices Report, a national set of recommendations that outlines the importance of multidisciplinary pain care.

5. Due to high out-of-pocket costs—coupled with pain’s drastic impact on the ability to work—cost remains the primary barrier to pain care.

• Approximately one-third (33%) of people with pain had a total annual household income of less than $35,000.
• According to people with pain, the leading barrier to treatment was cost (49%).
• Nearly half (41%) of people with pain said they felt insurance coverage decisions are driven by cost, not by what was in their best interest medically.