“There are about six times more Americans living with chronic pain than with all kinds of cancer. The NIH [National Institutes of Health] has its own Cancer Institute, which received $4.8 billion in 2005, or about 20 times more than the $229 million that went to pain research.”
This information comes from Advocates Demand Funding for Pain Care. Yes, cancer is life-threatening and pain is not (in the traditional sense), but that’s a huge disparity and way too many people are suffering from it.
Proposed legislation to increase the NIH’s pain research funding and to create six pain research centers around the country has the American Medical Association’s backing, but it the bill has faded into the background. Under the direction of the American Pain Foundation, pain patients are stirring up new interest in Congress by telling their stories.