5Internationally-recognized pain expert Don Goldenberg helps readers better understand the intricacies of chronic pain through the lens of personal stories, including his own. One out of three Americans lives with chronic pain. Pain is the number one reason we seek medical care and accounts for 40% of doctor visits. Chronic pain is the most common cause of work loss world-wide. The yearly cost of chronic pain in the United States is between $560-$630 billion, higher than that of heart disease, diabetes and cancer combined. Despite this, physicians and the public are woefully ill-informed about chronic pain. The litany of self-help books available to the public are largely misleading, quick-fix, junk-science. Although there is a major push to better inform primary health-care providers on chronic pain, they have been provided no authoritative treatment of the subject. The Pain Epidemic provides the latest medical information and pathways to better understanding and treatment of chronic pain. Dr. Don Goldenberg, an internationally known expert on pain, here discusses such hot topics as the opioid epidemic, mind/body interactions in chronic pain, and gender bias, as well as the role of cannabis and new potential pain treatment. Interested readers will come away with not only a better understanding of the pain epidemic but of pain itself.