Chronic pain is a debilitating condition that affects daily work and life activities for many adults in the United States and has been linked with depression, Alzheimer disease and related dementias, higher suicide risk, and substance use and misuse.

A 2023 study from the National Institutes of Health shows that new cases of chronic pain occur more often among U.S. adults than new cases of several other common conditions, including diabetes, depression and high blood pressure. Among people who have chronic pain, almost two-thirds still suffer from it a year later.

Overall, the study found that the rate of chronic pain and high-impact chronic pain (HICP) among adults is approximately 21% and 8%, respectively. Chronic pain is pain that is experienced on most days or every day in the past three months; and HICP is pain that limits life or work activities on most days or every day during the past three months.

Opioids can be essential medications for the management of pain; however, they carry considerable potential risk. Long-term prescription opioid use was found to be associated with increased risk for overdose and opioid misuse, among other risks.

In 2022, the CDC updated its clinical practice guidelines, which include recommendations for clinicians providing pain care, including those prescribing opioids, to ensure clinicians and patients considered safer and more effective pain treatment, to improve patient outcomes, and to reduce the number of persons who developed opioid use disorder, experienced overdose or experienced other prescription opioid–related adverse events

Included in the guidelines, the CDC recommends that clinicians consider toxicology testing to assess for other prescription and nonprescription controlled substances, including nonprescribed and illicit opioids and benzodiazepines, that may increase a risk of overdose when combined with opioids.