That chronic pain can have a central, neuropsychiatric origin is likely to have been considered at least briefly by anyone who's learned that (or who has been prescribed them) antidepressants, of all things, are frequently prescribed for chronic pain that appears without a clear cause.
I'm sure that the medicine of neurodegenerative diseases will receive more attention than almost any other field of medicine in the coming decades. Alzheimers, ALS and similar grave diseases are already major research priorities, but if chronic lower back pain and other chronic pain is definitely shown to frequently be the result of brain atrophy then better understanding (and hopefully treatments) may matter for a large part of the working population as well.
I'm sure that the medicine of neurodegenerative diseases will receive more attention than almost any other field of medicine in the coming decades. Alzheimers, ALS and similar grave diseases are already major research priorities, but if chronic lower back pain and other chronic pain is definitely shown to frequently be the result of brain atrophy then better understanding (and hopefully treatments) may matter for a large part of the working population as well.