Prevailing over Pain: Human Ecology Faculty Help Hundreds of Thousands of New York City Seniors Cope with Persistent Pain

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Alan Abrahams, a 79-year-old living in the Murray Hill neighborhood on Manhattan's east side, turns to Duke Ellington and George Gershwin to tune out his chronic pain. He plays jazz standards at his 110-year-old Chickening studio grand piano in the corner of his apartment, and the aches from his arthritis, bursitis, and spinal stenosis fade.

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"I'm not bad, but I can guarantee there wouldn't be any money in my tip jar either," he said. "I've found that the greatest pain relief is my mind. If I come up with diversions for my mind, the pain becomes much more bearable."

For Susan Heller, 82, relief doesn't come as easily. She can barely write because of her arthritic fingers, and she endures back, leg, and hip pain from a fall that nearly paralyzed her a few years ago. Sitting hurts. Standing hurts. Walking hurts. Cold weather, rain, humidity--all of them intensify her pain.

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Physical therapy and an assortment of medications help keep Heller's discomfort at bay, but most times "the pain takes over," she said. "No matter what you try to do to make it go away, it's always on the back of your mind, if not the front. It comes back at you every time."

Abrahams and Heller are two of hundreds of thousands of seniors in New York City coping with persistent pain and suffering its harmful physical, social, psychological, and economic consequences. It forces a complex arithmetic, as they weigh the effect to their bodies, minds, and bank accounts of prescription drugs, exercise routines, physical therapy, surgeries, and other treatment plans. Left untreated, chronic pain can lead to more crippling conditions and rob the elderly of their independence.

With such seniors in mind, the College of Human Ecology and Weill Cornell Medical College (WCMC) have …