(BPT) - If you live with chronic pain, you know that the real costs of pain far exceed the hundreds of billions of dollars spent on treatment efforts or lost to decreased job productivity each year. Pain can have a serious long-term physical and emotional impact, and can affect every aspect of your life.

Finding relief becomes a priority, but many of the estimated 100 million Americans living with chronic pain face high levels of frustration in finding treatment that works for them.

“Many shortfalls in pain assessment and treatment persist, despite humanity’s intimate familiarity with pain throughout history,” according to a 2011 report by the Institute of Medicine (IOM). The report, “Relieving Pain in America: A Blueprint for Transforming Prevention, Care, Education and Research,” cites “gaps in policy, treatment, attitudes, education and research” as reasons for the inadequate management of pain for millions of Americans.