title: Chronic pain has major long-term consequences.
abstract: Is pain a disease state? A doctor who has treated pain for more than 20 years explains how pain affects the body from the central nervous system to the heart--and how it affects morbidity and costs if not properly treated.
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D002908:Chronic Disease; D019468:Disease Management; D006801:Humans; D010146:Pain / Q000503:physiopathology; D059408:Pain Management; D014481:United States; D014493:United States Department of Veterans Affairs