Painful lives: Chronic pain experience among people who use illicit drugs in Montreal (Canada)

The current opioid crisis in North America has strengthened the boundary between “genuine chronic pain patients” and “drug addicts,” though these categories are not mutually exclusive. Despite its high prevalence —more than double the general population rate— chronic pain among people who use illicit drugs (PWUD) remains an overlooked issue in both health and social sciences. Using the theoretical framework of sociology of illness experience, the aim of this qualitative study was to understand how the experience of illicit drug use shapes the chronic pain experience. We conducted in-depth interviews with 25 individuals who used street opioids and/or cocaine (with or without any other drug) and had suffered from chronic pain for three months or more. Participants were recruited from July 2017 to May 2018, in Montreal (Canada). Social deprivation and drug use increased PWUD's exposure to a wide range of health issues including chronic pain. Even when intense, pain was often described as peripheral in their life given their many other problems. They experienced double stigmatization due to the cumulation of two socially devalued statuses, “drug addicts” and “chronic pain sufferers.” Their attempts to avoid stigma included valuing their toughness/endurance and pursuing physical activities despite the pain. Some reported using substances like cocaine or heroin to meet social expectations of performance regardless of pain. This study improves the knowledge on illness experiences within deprived social settings by showing how marginalization and stigma render PWUD's pain clinically and socially invisible.