More than 75 million Americans suffer from chronic, debilitating pain, according to the National Pain Foundation. In 2003, Research America released the results of a survey of 1,000 people in the United States that showed that 57% of all adults have had chronic or recurrent pain in the last year and that 75% of people currently in pain had to make adjustments to their lifestyle due to their pain. Chronic pain also accounts for more than 80% of all physician visits and leads to time off work and billions of dollars in lost productivity. With the prevalence and the exorbitant cost involved, it would seem only natural that health care workers would be clambering to find better ways to treat this epidemic problem. Unfortunately, this is not the case, and thus pain remains poorly understood and grossly under-treated. The complex mechanisms of pain transmission coupled with its inherent subjective nature creates an intimidating battle and requires physicians who are both comfortable with its diagnosis and more importantly who have an appreciation for the art of treating those in pain.

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