Obesity and Pain Management: An Expert Overview

A survey conducted between 2008 and 2010 showed that there is a rise in reporting of pain in patients with increasing body mass index (BMI), according to Anila Chadha, MD, family physician and obesity medicine physician at Dignity Health Medical Group in Bakersfield, California. Dr Chadha recently sat down with Patient Care Online to discuss the correlation between chronic pain and obesity, including the long-term effects of pain conditions for patients with obesity, common types of pain conditions associated with obesity, and how primary care clinicians should go about addressing pain with patients with obesity. More of her conversation with Patient Care^® follows.

Anila Chadha, MD, is also obesity medicine director at Mercy Weight Loss Surgery Program in Bakersfield, CA.