 The State of Pain: The Michigan Results
Frequently Asked Questions
Click here to read
the content disclaimer
The State of Pain:
"The Michigan Results"
(by MHNI Staff)
Demographics:
Pain in Michigan
One in five Michigan adults (about 1.2 million) experience some form of chronic,
ongoing pain. This is just one of the conclusions revealed in the State of Pain
study of 1,500 adults living in Michigan. This telephone survey was conducted by
EPIC/MRA, a prestigious Lansing polling firm, to gauge the extent that pain interferes
with daily life of Michigan citizens. The survey was the most extensive study of
pain ever conducted in the state, and among the most extensive of its kind in the
nation.
The study revealed that 7 in 10 pain sufferers (70%) continue to experience pain
or have their pain only partially relieved after consultation with a health care
professional. Twenty-two percent of those in the survey state that pain treatments
made their pain condition worse. Half of those in the survey with chronic pain are
unaware of pain centers or treatment advances; and two-thirds have never seen a
specialist.
Dr. Joel Saper, Director of MHNI, states, “What the survey says, loudly, is that
pain continues to be an enormous problem for a large percentage of Michigan citizens
and an illness in which the majority of people do not have access to advanced levels
of care.”
Back to Top | Back to FAQs
Chronic
Pain's Impact
Key findings of the State of Pain study are:
- 35% (about 400,000 people) missed more than 20 days of work in the last year because
of pain.
- 10% of pain sufferers (about 120,000 people) have thought about committing suicide.
- 21% of pain sufferers (about 252,000 people) visited a hospital emergency room an
average of four times in the last year for pain.
- 13% (about 440,000) of pain sufferers said that they had been denied access to pain
medications, medical devices and referrals to other professionals and/or pain centers.
- 42% of respondents who suffer from pain indicated that their relationships with
spouse, family, and fellow workers have worsened because of pain.
- 48% of pain sufferers reported that they frequently felt depressed and hopeless
about their pain condition.
Dr. Saper says that the relationship between pain and depression is not always recognized
and treated by health care professionals. “Pain is where the mind and body come
together . . . It’s a complex medical management problem that calls for more than
one kind of treatment. What is needed are treatments for the pain, and also for
the suffering, the depression, the failure to work, and changes that occur in the
family. When treating pain one must treat the person with the pain as well as the
pain of the person."
Back to Top | Back to FAQs
|