When Pain Becomes Chronic Pain: Should I See a Doctor?
One in five adults in the United States lives with chronic pain—more than 50 million people. It’s more common than heart disease, diabetes, or cancer, and it can make daily activities like work, exercise, or even sleep difficult.
But here’s the challenge: Pain isn’t something doctors can measure with a lab test or X-ray. Instead, patients are often asked to rate their pain on a scale of 0 to 10. That’s because pain isn’t just physical—it’s also deeply connected to how the brain and nervous system process signals.
Knowing when to seek help for pain and how to manage it better can make all the difference.
What Is Chronic Pain?
Chronic pain is pain that lasts for three months or longer, whether it’s constant or comes and goes. It can follow an injury, illness, or surgery, but sometimes it develops without a clear cause.
What Causes Chronic Pain?
Some common ones include:
- Nerve damage
- Arthritis or joint disease
- Fibromyalgia
- Endometriosis
- Past injuries or surgeries
Should I See a Doctor for Chronic Pain?
You may wonder, “What is the time frame when pain becomes chronic?” Doctors consider pain to be chronic when it lasts three months or longer. However, pain can sometimes be a signal of an underlying problem, so you should not wait until it’s severe or chronic before reaching out to your doctor.
Reach out to your doctor if your pain is...
- persistent or worsening
- interferes with work, sleep, or do daily activities
- accompanied by swelling, weakness, or numbness
Doctors now recognize that chronic pain is rarely just physical. Stress, depression, poor sleep, and even social factors can all increase pain. That’s why the most effective treatments take a multidisciplinary approach—combining medications, physical therapy, mental health services, and lifestyle changes.
New Science-Backed Approaches
UR Medicine researchers are exploring ways to improve pain care, including:
- Yoga programs designed specifically for people with limited mobility.
- Better screening tools to predict who will benefit most from advanced treatments like spinal cord stimulation.
- Understanding immune and nerve responses that may make some people more vulnerable to long-term pain.
What You Can Do If You Live with Chronic Pain
While researchers work on new treatments, here are steps you can take now to manage chronic pain:
- Stay active. Even light movement or stretching can retrain your nervous system to calm pain signals.
- Prioritize sleep. Poor rest can make pain feel worse. Create a relaxing bedtime routine and stick to regular hours.
- Ask about a plan. Multidisciplinary care that treats the full person (physical therapy, psychological support, and medication) often works better than one approach alone.
For those looking for both medication and non-medication treatments for pain, there are many treatments that you can try to manage your pain. Treatment options range from topical medications, oral medications, procedures, physical therapy, mind/body approaches, and more.
The Gewandter Team, lead by Jennifer Gewandter, PhD, MPH, focuses on developing therapies for chronic pain through clinical trials. Learn more about our research studies related to pain.
What Research Tells Us About Chronic Pain
Experts at the University of Rochester Medical Center are uncovering important ways pain works in the body and brain. Recent research shows:
- The brain plays a big role. Pain isn’t only about an injured back or knee—it’s how your brain interprets those signals. Two people with the same injury can feel pain very differently.
- Some people have a higher risk. People whose nervous systems are better at naturally “dialing down” pain are less likely to develop long-term pain after an injury. Those whose systems don’t regulate pain as well are more likely to experience severe or widespread chronic pain.
- Exercise helps regulate pain. Movement reduces sensitivity and retrains the nervous system.
- Personalized treatments are the future. Scientists are identifying brain markers that may predict who is more likely to develop chronic pain—helping doctors tailor treatments sooner.
University of Rochester’s Ongoing Research
At UR Medicine, our scientists are uncovering new ways to understand, prevent, and treat chronic pain—from studying how the brain processes pain signals to testing innovative therapies like yoga-based programs and spinal cord stimulation.This research is paving the way for more personalized care and better outcomes for people living with pain.
Pain Management Services
UR Medicine offers a multidisciplinary approach to pain treatment, so you will have a complete team of pain experts working for you.
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