ABSTRACT
The impact of pain on our lives is staggering. Chronic pain affects approximately 116 million adults in the United States annually, and this fi gure does not include people in long-term care facilities, the military, or prison. It costs up to $635 billion a year in (largely ineffective) health care and lost wages (Committee on Advancing Pain Research, Care and Education 2011). This is more than the costs for cancer, heart disease, and diabetes combined (Pizzo and Clark 2012).
