Osteoarthritis (OA) remains the most common joint disease in the world, and to date, has no cure. Approximately 27 million people in the United States (1) suffer from OA, which is characterized by chronic pain, joint stiffness, structural damage, and bone remodeling and is caused by the pro-gressive loss of cartilage. The prevalence of chronic pain in OA has been estimated to range from 8% to more than 60%, depending on the types of populations studied and the methodologies used (2). Economically, the impact of arthritis on lost productive work time for 2003/2004 was estimated to be $7.1 billion, with 66% of these costs at-tributed to 38% of workers who had pain exacerbations (3). OA-related annual medical costs in 2007 were $6,811 per patient for those newly diagnosed and $6,407 for existing patients. Annual costs of pain-related prescription drugs associated with OA were $965 each for new patients and $1,117 for existing patients (4).
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