VHA Pain Management
For Providers
Chronic pain is among the most common, disabling, and costly chronic illness in the US and Veterans are more likely to experience severe pain than the general US population.
Confusion by both patients and healthcare providers about the most appropriate way to understand and manage chronic pain can be a barrier to effective management. This confusion often stems from using a simplistic biomedical model (derived from conventional approaches to acute pain) to approach the multidimensional biopsychosocial condition of chronic pain and can lead to over-reliance on passive therapies such as opioids and procedures.