Nearly one in four U.S. adults live with chronic pain—and for older adults, that number climbs even higher, with 36% of seniors age 65 and up reporting pain that lingers for months or years at a time.
Whether you’re living with chronic pain or you’re caring for a family member dealing with chronic pain, it’s important to understand how this challenge can reshape daily life, making even simple tasks feel harder than they should. In this guide, we’ll explain what chronic pain is, the different types and causes, and the treatment and management options you or your loved one can explore with your healthcare provider.
What Is Chronic Pain?
Chronic pain is generally defined as pain that affects any part of the body and lasts several months or longer. Unlike acute pain—which serves as a warning sign of an injury or illness and typically fades as the body heals—chronic pain can persist long after the original cause has resolved. In some cases, chronic pain may have no clear starting point at all.
While many adults are still able to function in spite of their chronic pain, 8.5% of adults deal with what’s considered high-impact chronic pain. This is defined as having chronic pain that frequently limits life or work activities within the past three months. High-impact chronic pain occurs more often as you get older, partially due to arthritis, past injuries, and age-related wear and tear on the body.
Types of Chronic Pain
Although chronic pain includes a wide range of pain causes and types, medical professionals generally group it into a few broad categories.
Neuropathic Pain
This type of pain stems from damage or dysfunction in the nervous system itself. It’s often described as burning, tingling, shooting, or electric shock-like. It includes conditions such as diabetic neuropathy, sciatica, and shingles-related nerve pain.
Musculoskeletal Pain
This affects the bones, joints, muscles, ligaments, and tendons. It’s the most common form of chronic pain and often results from injuries, arthritis, or general wear and tear over time. Common examples include chronic lower back pain or osteoarthritis.
Inflammatory Pain
This occurs when the body’s inflammatory response to tissue damage or disease becomes long-lasting, as seen in conditions like rheumatoid arthritis or lupus. It’s often accompanied by swelling, warmth, or redness in the affected area.
Visceral Pain
This originates in the internal organs, such as the digestive tract, bladder, or reproductive organs. It tends to feel like a deep, dull ache or cramping, and can be harder to pinpoint than pain closer to the skin’s surface. Conditions like irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and kidney stones can cause visceral pain.
Generalized (or Widespread) Pain
Some people experience pain that isn’t confined to one area of the body, as with fibromyalgia. This type of pain can be especially challenging to diagnose and treat because it doesn’t always trace back to a single, identifiable source.
What Causes Chronic Pain?
Chronic pain can develop from a specific injury or illness, or it can appear gradually with no single clear trigger. Some of the most common causes and contributing factors include:
- Injury or Surgery: Pain that doesn’t fully resolve after an injury heals or a surgical incision closes can become chronic, especially if nerves were affected.
- Chronic Illness & Disease: Conditions like arthritis, diabetes, cancer, and autoimmune diseases are among the most frequent origins of long-term pain.
- Infection: Some infections, like shingles, can leave behind lingering nerve pain (i.e., post-herpetic neuralgia) long after the infection itself has cleared.
- Age: As the body ages, joints and tissues naturally experience more wear and tear, making older adults more susceptible to chronic musculoskeletal pain.
- Genetics: Some pain-related conditions, including migraines and certain forms of arthritis, tend to run in families.
- Disability & Mobility Limitations: Reduced mobility can place extra strain on certain joints and muscles, contributing to or worsening chronic pain over time.
- Mental Health & Stress: Ongoing stress, anxiety, and depression can both contribute to chronic pain and be worsened by it.
- Sleep Disruption: Poor or insufficient sleep is increasingly recognized as both a risk factor for developing chronic pain and a symptom that can make existing pain feel more intense.
Because chronic pain can stem from so many different sources—and often more than one at a time—a thorough evaluation from a healthcare provider is an important first step toward understanding what’s behind you or your loved one’s pain. Healthcare providers typically evaluate chronic pain using a combination of tools, including self-reported pain scales (like rating pain from 0 to 10), descriptions of how pain affects daily activities, and physical exams or imaging (X-rays, MRIs or other scans) to help identify an underlying cause.
How to Treat & Manage Chronic Pain
There’s no single option for chronic pain treatment, but a combination of therapies can help reduce its impact and improve quality of life for you or your loved one. The most effective approach is usually one that’s tailored to the individual, often blending several of the following strategies.
Physical & Occupational Therapy
Physical therapy can improve strength, flexibility, and mobility, which often helps reduce pain over time and lowers the risk of re-injury. Occupational therapy, meanwhile, focuses on helping you or your loved one adapt daily routines and home environments to make everyday tasks easier, safer, and less painful to perform.
Medications
Depending on the type and severity of pain, a healthcare provider may recommend over-the-counter medications like acetaminophen or NSAIDs (such as ibuprofen or naproxen) for mild to moderate pain and inflammation. For more persistent or nerve-related pain, providers may prescribe medications such as certain antidepressants or anti-seizure drugs, which can help calm overactive pain signals. Opioids are generally reserved as a last resort due to their risk of dependence and are typically used only when other options haven’t provided relief.
Psychological & Behavioral Therapies
Because chronic pain and mental health are closely connected, therapies like cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) can be a valuable part of a pain management plan. CBT and related approaches can help address the stress, anxiety, or depression that often accompanies long-term pain, teaching coping strategies that make pain more manageable day to day.
Complementary & Lifestyle Approaches
Many people find relief through complementary therapies such as massage, acupuncture, biofeedback, and meditation. Beyond formal treatments, everyday lifestyle habits also matter. Committing to regular, age-appropriate physical activity, stress management techniques (like deep breathing), maintaining a healthy weight, and prioritizing restorative sleep can all help ease the burden of chronic pain over time.
Medical Procedures & Devices
For pain that doesn’t respond well to more traditional pain management options, healthcare providers may recommend targeted interventions such as steroid injections, nerve blocks, radiofrequency ablation, or transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS). In select cases, surgery may be considered when a clear structural cause can be corrected.
Support Systems
Chronic pain can be isolating, but staying connected to family, friends, and a broader support system plays an important role in coping well. For family caregivers, this might mean helping your loved one get to appointments, keeping track of medications, or simply being present—all of which can make a meaningful difference in how well pain is managed over the long term.
How BrightStar Care® Can Help with Chronic Pain Management
Living with chronic pain—or caring for someone experiencing it—can feel overwhelming to navigate alone. Fortunately, BrightStar Care’s in-home caregivers and nurses can support you with a goal of maintaining comfort, mobility, and independence at home.
Our in-home care services can be tailored to fit your family’s needs, including:
- Personal care, to assist with activities of daily living (ADLs) like bathing, dressing, feeding, toileting, and mobility that can become more difficult with chronic pain.
- In-home therapies, which includes home infusion therapy, physical therapy, and occupational therapy.
- Short-term transitional care, to help you or your loved one recover from surgery or return home from an acute care facility.
- Skilled nursing care, which provides assistance with medications, monitoring changes in condition, wound care, and other in-home medical needs.
Find a location near you, contact us online, or call 866-618-7827 to learn more about how BrightStar Care can support you and your family.