ABSTRACT
The issue of pain treatment is an extremely urgent health and socioeconomic problem. Pain, in acute, recurrent, and chronic forms, is prevalent across age, cultural background, and sex and costs North American adults an estimated $10,000-$15,000 per person annually. At least one in four adults in North America is suffering from some form of pain at any given moment. These estimates do not include the nearly 30,000 people that die in North America each year due to nonsteroidal anti-inammatory drug-induced gastric lesions (Thomas and Prato, 2002).
