The Rise in American Pain: The Importance of the Great Recession

A significant literature has documented trend increases in pain among Americans over the last 2 or 3 decades. There is no consensus on the reason for the trend, with no single explanation seeming to work well. We show that, rather than resulting from a smooth upward trend, the increase was almost entirely concentrated in the 2007–2010 period, the time of the Great Recession, a result not uncovered in prior work. The disproportionate increase in pain among the less educated is also shown to have occurred primarily at the time of the Recession, with either little or no trend before or after. The Recession jump occurred only at older ages and primarily only at the points during each cohort's lifetime when they experienced the Recession. However, we too find the jump difficult to explain, for while there is necessarily a temporary decline in employment during a Recession, why there should be a permanent increase in pain as a result is unclear. We assess a number of explanations, related to family structure and the deterioration of family life, as well as possible biopsychosocial channels. While we find some speculative hypotheses to have potential explanatory power, we conclude that the rise in pain continues to be mysterious and deserves further research in light of our new findings.