What Are The Most Common Types Of Chronic Pain?

— -- Question: What Are The Most Common Types Of Chronic Pain?

Answer: The most common types of chronic pain are, in order of frequency: back pain, headache pain is number two when looking at both acute and chronic types of pain, pain in the joints comes next -- it's a very common condition whether caused by different types of arthritis or trauma to joints whether it's accidents or sports injuries -- and then a variety of different pains, types of pain, whether it's chronic abdominal pain, acute abdominal pain, different types of chest pain syndromes sort of finish out the list.

Of that list, certainly the most common type of pain that we see as family physicians and in primary care is low back pain. Sometimes neck pain, but low back pain is certainly number one. It is a condition that 80 percent of adults experience in their lifetime, which is a fairly shocking number, and it accounts for about 25 percent of visits to primary care practices, that is pain visits in general. Back pain is the number one type of pain that we see everyday in the office.

So, very common reason for people to seek medical attention and whether it's emergency rooms, primary care physicians, or subspecialist type settings, it's an everyday type thing that as a physician I'm aware of the need to control.

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