# Chronic pain

- kind: problem
- status: open
- year: 1965

**Statement.** What causes pain to persist after injury heals, and can it be treated without addictive drugs?

About one in five adults lives with chronic pain. Opioids work poorly long-term and caused an addiction crisis. In 2025 suzetrigine became the first new class of non-opioid pain drug approved in decades, for acute pain. Chronic pain involves changes in the nervous system itself, which makes it harder.

## Sources

- [Wikipedia: Chronic pain](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronic_pain)

[Chronic disease](/wiki/Space:chronic-disease.md) · [Medicine](/wiki/Continent:medicine.md)

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