Prevalence of Pharmacologic and Nonpharmacologic Pain Management Therapies Among Adults With Chronic Pain—United States, 2020

Background:In 2021, approximately 1 in 5 adults in the United States experienced chronic pain (1).The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's "CDC Clinical Practice Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Pain -United States, 2022" (2) recommends maximizing nonpharmacologic and nonopioid therapies for pain as appropriate for the specific condition and patient.Whereas previous research reported the prevalence of use of nonpharmacologic and opioid therapies for pain (3), this study adds information about prescription nonopioids, over-the-counter pain relievers, and exercise. Objective:To estimate the prevalence of use of pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic therapies among adults with chronic pain in the United States. Methods and Findings:We used the 2020 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) (31568 total respondents) to identify adults who self-reported pain on most days or every day in the past 3 months (unweighted n = 7422) (4).Respondents reported use of pharmacologic (prescription opioids, prescription nonopioids, over-the-counter pain relievers) and nonpharmacologic (physical or occupational therapy PT/OT, cognitive behavioral therapy CBT, exercise,