Chronic pain is thought to affect around a third of people. For one in ten of these, the pain is severe enough to be disabling—making it the leading cause of disability worldwide. Some forms of chronic pain are particularly mysterious—with clinicians unable to treat the pain, nor understand its causal mechanisms—presenting a huge challenge for societies. How can this burden be eased, for both healthcare systems and the individuals living with pain? 

Host: Alok Jha, The Economist’s science and technology editor, with Gilead Amit, our science correspondent. Contributors: Catherine Charlwood, who lives with chronic pain; Francis Keefe, director of the Pain Prevention and Treatment Research Program at Duke University; Matt Evans, a clinical lecturer at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital and Imperial College London; Jan Vollert, a pain researcher at the University of Exeter.

Sign up for Economist Podcasts+ now and get 50% off your subscription with our limited time offer. You will not be charged until Economist Podcasts+ launches.

If you’re already a subscriber to The Economist, you’ll have full access to all our shows as part of your subscription. 

For more information about Economist Podcasts+, including how to get access, please visit our FAQs page.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.