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Chronic pain is a major public health concern for civilian and military populations, and can be defined as a pain that occurs on at least half the days for 6 months or more. Per the 2011 Institute of Medicine (now National Academy of Medicine) report, “Relieving Pain in America,” over 100 million adults in the U.S. suffer from chronic pain, of which 8 million report pain severe enough to interfere with daily living. A combination of health care costs and lost productivity results in an estimated total cost to the public of $600B per year from the effects of chronic pain. The impact of the problem is magnified in light of the current opioid crisis which has been exacerbated by use of addictive narcotics to manage chronic pain. The Chronic Pain Management Research Program (CPMRP) was established in Fiscal Year 2019 with an appropriation of $10M and the specific intent of supporting research into the effects of using prescription opioids to manage chronic pain and for research of opioid-alternatives and non-addictive methods to treat and manage chronic pain, with a focus on issues related to military populations.

The CPMPR supports and promotes innovative, high-impact research to prevent the development and improve the management of chronic pain. Central to the strategic planning of the CPMRP are the 2016 National Pain Strategy and 2017 Federal Pain Research Strategy of the Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee, with elements of the chronic pain and cross-cutting research priorities emphasized in all offered funding opportunities. The CPMRP supports a broad spectrum of research into pain caused by, but not limited to: combat- and training-related physical or mental stress and trauma, migraines and chronic headaches, traumatic brain injury, arthritis, muscular-skeletal conditions, neurological disease, tick and vector-borne disease, other insect-transmitted or tropical disease, and cancer. Currently, the CPMPR has prioritized research in the following strategic areas:

• Development of non-opioid therapies and methods for the treatment of chronic pain
• Chronification of Pain
• Effectiveness and observational studies of novel or untested techniques/approaches/pathways to chronic pain management
• Implementation Science (for evidence based, efficacious interventions to manage or prevent chronic pain)
• Comparative Effectiveness (for evidence based, efficacious interventions to manage or prevent chronic pain)
• Observational studies related to chronic pain:
  • Development
  • Health care use patterns
  • Treatment outcomes from long-term opioid use
  • Relationship with comorbidities