INCIDENCE:
Nearly one in three Canadians suffer, or will suffer, from chronic pain.
Nonmalignant, chronic pain is associated with physical, emotional and financial disability.

Patients with chronic pain are five times more likely than patients without chronic pain to utilize health care services. They report impairments of multiple quality-of-life measures, including physical, social and psychologic well-being. Treatment of chronic pain needs to address the physical pathology that initiated the chronic pain, as well as the important social and psychologic sequelae of chronic symptoms.

BENEFITS

1. Reduction of chronic illness symptoms
2. Reduced acute and persistent pains
3. Normalization of working ability
4. Relief from muscle cramps
5. Reduction in anger mismanagement
6. Improved psychological and emotional status
7. Enhanced sensory input: better sight, hearing, taste
8. Less reliance on pain medication
9. Reversal of impotence
10. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome lessened
11. Memory, and mental concentration improved
12. Reduction of adrenal-thyroid exhaustion.

STATUS
----- Current BC Medical support: minimal and reduced
----- Possible cost savings per 2007: $4 million