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

MedicalXpress | Jun 12, 2026

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.