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In the Emergency Management of Chronic Pain podcast, Duncan Grossman and Reuben Strayer discuss how and why patients with chronic pain present to the ED. Managing patients with chronic pain is challenging and often it feels like these patients present to the ED during every shift. But… is it as common as it feels? Statistics suggest that 20% of American adults suffer from chronic pain. Why? Well, opioids are both the disease and the cure. Opioids are effective for managing acute pain. However, when they are used for (even) more than a couple of days they can start to cause pain. Therefore, we have to understand the spectrum of opioid benefit vs harm. Reuben and Duncan discuss a framework that accounts for the relationship between chronic pain and opioid use. Noting that each patient presents a unique challenge. Take for example, the patient who is on daily, low dose opioids but is otherwise unaffected by their pain medication. Or, the patient who has chronic pain but doesn’t take opioids. We need to be carefu