Chronic pain acceptance may reduce link between pain intensity and alcohol use severity among veterans

Accepting chronic pain—being willing to experience pain while maintaining valued activities—may protect against higher alcohol use severity among veterans with chronic musculoskeletal pain, according to a preliminary study. More than 1 in 4 U.S. veterans report drinking at levels that increase the risk of alcohol-related harms, and 1 in 3 experiences chronic pain. The conditions commonly overlap among veterans, and possibly also in the brain, with some research pointing to shared neurobiological pathways affecting stress and reward signaling.