Will there ever be a cure for chronic pain?

Should there be one? Pain is a symptom of something else, treat the root cause.

Managing pain should only be a temporary measure.

You've clearly never had a surgery. Many invasive surgeries can result in lifelong pain with no underlying cause. Having a doctor muck about with your internals leaves nerve endings in the wrong place and scar tissue that will never heal.

Source: Had two pneumothoraces that resulted in lung surgery years ago, still get pain every day that I just have to ignore.

While the parent is being a bit crass, there is a valuable underlying point. Ignoring pain is akin to ignoring the "check engine light". We (as a society) should really try to figure out the root causes AND (not or) find more targeted pain management. Perhaps your pain can be safely ignored (from a medical point of view). Perhaps its truly a signal there is a new or greater risk.

Oof.

To answer the headline, there already is a cure to chronic pain and it is called correct diagnosis.

When i was 21 I had chronic pain for 8 months, doctors gave me anti-biotics, NSAIDS, steroids.....but pain was just there. After months of research I found a surgeon in California, who performed surgeries on "Sports Hernia", almost like inguinal hernia without any bumps. I flew out to have the surgery, pictures taken during showed almost total rips of internal/external obliques in my groin area. This was not picked up by an MRI, as specific MRI settings need to be used. When I called different MRI places to talk about settings they did not know what the hell I was talking about. If I did not do my own research, I would literally still be living with this pain. I mentioned sports hernia to at least 4 doctors and they said it is "rare".

Oddly enough I have symptoms of fibro, after flouroquinolone antibiotics reaction. It is very frustrating that doctors are ignoring the cause and going straight to medicating. Side effects of these drugs are widely under-reported, and many fibromyalgia patients actually are suffering from FQAD, which is flouroquinolone associated disability. It affects the neurological system and tendons/muscles.

There is some new research coming to the surface talking about possible mtDNA toxicity. This would be better treated with supplements that support mitochondria, rather than medication. Also, best treatment for tendinitis is eccentric exercise not NSAIDs or steroids.

Additionally, by focusing on treating pain only when there is widespread tendon issue for example, patients are feeling better, therefore, putting more load on tendons, leading to more damage but hey at least they are hooked on opiates, cymbalta or any other wonder drug they come up with.

I'm not saying there is no place for medicating pain, when pain is due to scar tissue, nerve damage or other. I just have a problem with doctors tossing whatever medication they can without doing proper research.

Pain was once considered a fact of life, and vital signs were those 4 signs which can indicate a patient is alive: body temp, pulse, respiratory rate, and blood pressure.

Then the notion of pain as the "fifth vital sign," came about. Some argue we resultantly now have an opioid epidemic.

There is a fascinating NPR show episode on this topic: https://www.npr.org/programs/invisibilia/701219878/the-fifth....

Edit: another source of info: https://www.medpagetoday.com/publichealthpolicy/publichealth...