Pain is the most common condition for which patients seek medical attention, and pain conditions represent the leading cause of disability worldwide. In the United States, as detailed in a recent Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, chronic pain affects 100 million U.S. adults and produces financial costs exceeding $635 billion annually in direct health care expenses and loss of work productivity (asamonitor.pub/3iQXHvq). While there are numerous pain conditions, back pain carries the greatest societal burden, affecting nearly every adult at least once in their lifetime. Indeed, low back pain is the leading cause of years lived with disability in the world. Low back pain also adversely impacts quality of life and produces annual costs exceeding $100 billion.
Current best practices for diagnosing and treating chronic pain have yielded only limited success and are associated with significant health care expenditures and morbidity. Some treatment options, such as opioid medications...