“There’s a chronic pain crisis in Canada, and governments must address it”

In this article by Margo Kelly of Globe and Mail, Kelly connects the dots between the opioid crisis, the prevalence of chronic pain and the lack publicly funded treatment options for patients suffering from pain conditions. Some grim statistics from the article:

• Chronic pain affects one in every five Canadians, or six million of us.
• Chronic pain costs the Canadian economy an estimated $60-billion a year in health care and lost wages and taxes.

Kelly suggests that society’s dismissive view of pain has contributed to the underfunding of treatments and research in this area.

Here is the article.