Understanding Chronic Pain

How the Brain Processes Pain Signals

Sometimes, especially in cases where pain has become chronic, doctors might tell you that they can’t do much more to reduce the pain, or even say that there is no obvious 'organic' cause for the pain. This certainly does not mean that the pain is imaginary! The pain is always experienced as real, and the suffering can be considerable.

The Brain's Role in Chronic Pain

What the doctors mean is that the brain has changed the way it processes signals coming from the body and might be creating a pain experience from milder or even neutral nerve signals. This is because pain is, in effect, an output that the brain creates to try to protect you. Over time, the brain needs less and less "information" to warn you about threats by creating a pain experience.

Retraining the Brain for Better Pain Management

Luckily, research suggests that we can retrain the brain to read signals more accurately.

EUROSPINE is a society of spine specialists of various disciplines with a large knowledge of spine pathologies. All well-known and accepted treatment modalities for spine pathologies are represented by the members of the society. However, the Society cannot accept any responsibility for the use of the information provided; the user and their health care professionals must retain responsibility for their health care management.