Chronic Pain Up 40 Percent Among U.S. Workers

Persistent, chronic pain has risen dramatically among full-time U.S. workers in the past 10 years, but workers today opt to go to their jobs rather than call in sick, leading to a growing trend of presenteeism – a negative impact on work despite being physically present at the job.Chronic pain, defined in the survey as pain that lasts for at least six months, was more common in the workplace in 2006 than it was in 1996 (26 percent vs. 19 percent).

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Today, almost nine in 10 employees with chronic pain (89 percent) typically go to work rather than stay home when experiencing chronic pain, the survey found. The same percentage of employees (89 percent) reported experiencing chronic pain at work “often” or “sometimes.” Ninety-five percent of employees with persistent, chronic pain reported that their pain must be moderately severe or very severe to cause them to stay home from work.

“In my practice, I am seeing an increasing number of patients for chronic pain and hearing more patients talk about how their pain affects activities of daily living,” said Charles Argoff, M.D., director and assistant professor of neurology, New York University School of Medicine, New York, New York. “They’re looking for ways to manage their pain, and there are treatments that can help such as diet and exercise, physical therapy, acupuncture and a variety of over-the-counter and prescription medications. Extended-release chronic pain medications, such as prescription ULTRAM(R) ER (tramadol HCl) Extended-Release Tablets, taken once daily, have been shown to relieve moderate to moderately severe chronic pain in adults who need around-the-clock treatment for an extended period of time(1).”