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The prevalence of chronic pain has been reported to range from 37% to 61% in opioid-dependent patients and 16% to 24% in those with other substance-use disorders. Few studies have examined the effect of pain on addiction treatment outcomes, and none have focused on non-opioid–dependent outpatients. These researchers examined data on 582 veterans with non-opioid substance dependence (570 men) in an outpatient treatment study.
No or low pain was reported by 114 patients; moderate-to-severe pain was persistent at each quarterly assessment in 193 patients and intermittent in 275. Compared with the low-pain group, the persistent-pain group at baseline had more-severe substance use, more comorbid psychiatric diagnoses, and more positive tests for …