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Rethinking the Pain Puzzle

Pain is a puzzle to be solved. Pain deserves our attention — our full attention. Pain is not merely a symptom to be suppressed; it is a signal arising from a complex system of integrated networks known as the human body. In order to comprehensively and responsibly understand and treat pain, we need to listen very carefully.

As a pain management physician for more than 25 years, I have thousands of stories of pain emanating from every location in the human body. I treat patients with back pain, joint pain, muscle pain, headache and various other pain syndromes. My goal as a physician is to identify the root cause of pain and recommend a treatment plan to help my patients feel and…

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Featured

 A New Prognosis for Pain Care

Innovative ways to measure, understand and treat pain are allowing doctors to ease patients’ suffering—without relying on dangerous drugs.

 A pain doctor explains how he balances his patients’ needs with the opioid epidemic’s lessons

When you ask Stanford pain specialist Sean Mackey how he deals with chronic pain patients in the middle of the opioid epidemic, he has a consistent answer: “It’s complicated.”

 Chronic Pain Made My Sex Life Better, Not Worse

In my ongoing recovery, I've cultivated a strong sense of entitlement to finding pleasure in my body.

 Scientists are unraveling the mysteries of pain

With the opioid crisis, the quest to understand the biology of pain and explore new ways to treat it has taken on fresh urgency.

 The Latest Science on Chronic Pain Is Fascinating

Experts can even predict who’s likely to suffer or recover, based on brain structure and personality.

 There's More Than One Type of Pain. Scientists Are Learning to Treat Each of Them

It comes in many types that each require specialized treatment. Scientists are starting to learn how to diagnose the different varieties.

 What Chronic-Pain Patients Are Deeply Afraid Of

Getting off opioids can be a crisis itself — so patients and prescribers need strong support.

Articles of Interest

The Enduring Mystery of Pain Measurement

Finding a reliable way to quantify pain would help with treatment, but that requires understanding what pain actually is.

The Long History of Discrimination in Pain Medicine

X-rays and other “objective" instruments influenced controversies about whose pain should be believed.

The “right” goal when managing pain

The field of pain management needs a lot more research to determine which patients are more likely to benefit from a given treatment.

What the West Can Learn From Tibetan Pain Management

The Tibetan tradition and its herbal medicines offer an inviting alternative to the typical Western approach.

A Warning From a Doctor Who Has Done Thousands of Steroid Injections for Arthritis

The extremely common treatment might be causing more harm than previously thought.

An E.R. Kicks the Habit of Opioids for Pain

Scattered E.R.s around the country have been working to reduce opioids as a first-line treatment, but St. Joe’s, as it is known locally, has taken the efforts to a new level.

Can Magnetic Therapy Relieve Pain?

Are all the new magnetic devices just a resurgence of the presumed quackery of the past or have we overlooked a valuable medical device that might give millions of people pain relief?

Finding Good Pain Treatment Is Hard. If You’re Not White, It’s Even Harder

While an epidemic of prescription opioid abuse has swept across the United States, African-Americans and Hispanics have been affected at much lower rates than whites.

How America's Best Pain Doctor - John Sarno - Took On The Medical Establishment and Won

The story of how Dr. John Sarno, a ground-breaking medical pioneer whose revolutionary approach to treating pain succeeded in helping thousands, overcoming formidable opposition from the medical establishment is both inspirational and all-too-familiar.

How Doctors Take Women's Pain Less Seriously

When my wife was struck by mysterious, debilitating symptoms, our trip to the ER revealed the sexism inherent in emergency treatment.

How to Block Out Pain

“Pain is a personal experience, and success comes from self-management,” says David Tauben, clinical professor in the department of pain medicine at the University of Washington.

I have chronic pain and nothing works for it. I'm afraid I'll be forgotten in the opioid crisis

Chronic pain patients need better options, not just fewer opioids.

New Devices Take the Pain Out of Hospital Visits

Fewer needle sticks, less discomfort with new ways to draw blood and give medications.

New Ways to Treat Pain Meet Resistance

Alternative treatments for pain may include chiropractic and osteopathic manipulation, meditation, massage, yoga, acupuncture and cognitive behavioral therapy, which helps people cope with pain by changing how they think about it.

No Drugs for Back Pain, New Guidelines Say

The American College of Physicians says to use natural and alternative therapies first.

The Enduring Mystery of Pain Measurement

Finding a reliable way to quantify pain would help with treatment, but that requires understanding what pain actually is.

When Patients Are a Pain for Their Doctors

The most difficult patients could be negatively affecting their care, research shows.

Resources

10 Things Never to Say to Your Doctor About Chronic Pain.

Don’t volunteer to your doctor that you do not abuse drugs or that you are not an addict. If you blurt out such statements, she will assume that you do and that you are...

100 million Americans have chronic pain. Very few use one of the best tools to treat it.

Chronic pain often has no physical cause. Psychotherapy can reduce the suffering.

24 Secrets Pain Doctors Won’t Tell You

Learn what pain doctors are really thinking when you visit them, and how you can better manage your symptoms.

Five Things Physicians and Patients Should Question

Don’t prescribe opioid analgesics as first-line therapy to treat chronic non-cancer pain...

Pain Connection

Pain Connection provides compassionate support and evidence-based education to help people with pain reclaim their quality of life.

Pain News Network

Pain News Network is a 501(c)(3) non-profit online news source for information and commentary about chronic pain and pain management. Our mission is to raise awareness about chronic pain, and to connect and educate pain sufferers, caregivers, healthcare providers and the public about the pain experience.

PainAction

The goal of painACTION is to help people improve their self-management of their pain condition. Written with the help of health educators, pain experts, and people dealing with pain, this site is a resource to come back to repeatedly, to track the occurrence of pain as well as to learn more.

PainPathways

PainPathways is the first, only and ultimate pain magazine. First published in spring 2008, PainPathways is the culmination of the vision of Richard L. Rauck, MD, to provide a shared resource for people living with and caring for others in pain.

The Pain Community

To build and strengthen an active, energized and diverse community of people affected by pain by providing a foundation of support where education, wellness information and advocacy are promoted.

The Pain Toolkit

The Pain Toolkit helps people all over the world self manage persistent pain.

For Grace

For Grace is an organization passionately devoted to promoting better care and wellness for women in pain.

Give Pain a Voice

GIve Pain A Voice ~ is a grass roots movement dedicated to the rights of Chronic Pain Patients everywhere, regardless of diagnoses.

Goalistics

Goalistics was created by two psychologists, Dr. Linda Ruehlman and Dr. Paul Karoly. Goalistics develops affordable and easy-to-use computer-based tools to aid in treatment for chronic pain and depression.

Growing Pains

Growing Pains was created to help adolescents living with pain.

How to Cope with Pain

Welcome to How to Cope with Pain, a resource for those with chronic pain, their families and friends, and for those who treat patients with chronic pain.

Institute for Chronic Pain

Changing the culture of how chronic pain is treated by promoting the theory and practice of chronic pain rehabilitation.

International Pain Foundation

International Pain Foundation (iPain) is your Power of Pain headquarters. We recognize the value of every person who makes up the chronic pain community. We are guided by our commitment to excellence, leadership and patient empowerment.

Joint Commission Statement on Pain Management

In the environment of today’s prescription opioid epidemic, everyone is looking for someone to blame. Often, The Joint Commission’s pain standards take that blame. We are encouraging our critics to look at our exact standards, along with the historical context of our standards, to fully understand what our accredited organizations are required to do with regard to pain.

National Pain Report

The National Pain Report is the leading online news site dedicated to the coverage of chronic pain. We feature the latest developments in the treatment of chronic pain, public policy impacting chronic pain as well comments from leading pain specialists and columns from chronic pain sufferers.

Pain BC

Pain doesn't have to be a barrier to living a full life. We believe in a holistic, integrated approach to pain management. If you’re living with pain, you deserve to be in the driver’s seat.

Pain Doctor

Pain Doctor was created with one mission in mind: help and educate people about their pain conditions, treatment options and find a doctor who can help end their pain issues. To do that, we’ve created a mammoth database of pain-related information, and it keeps expanding every day

Pain Dr.

This “Pain Chatter” blog is designed to be a forum in which pharmacists, pharmacy students, pharmacy residents, and other healthcare clinicians can share their pain management experiences, news, events, questions, comments or general thoughts and opinions regarding pain therapeutics.

PainWeek

The PAINWeek communications platform represents a single point of access for busy practitioners spanning live, digital, and print communications that will extend the energy and experience of our national and regional conferences throughout the year, and to a wider audience of frontline practitioners with an interest in pain management.

Practical Pain Management

From arthritis and migraine to back pain and fibromyalgia, the PPM journal and professional website provide up-to-date best clinical practices and real-world insights into the complex and dynamic nature of pain and how to treat it safely and effectively.

Race Against Pain

At Race Against Pain, our mission is to bring help, hope, and heroes into your life — so you and your loved ones can win your race against the debilitating effects of severe chronic pain.

Thriving with Pain

Thriving with Pain can help you go from Ow to Wow!

U.S. Pain Foundation

The mission of U.S. Pain Foundation is to educate, connect, inform and empower those living with pain while also advocating on behalf of the entire pain community. As a 501 (c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to serving those who live with pain conditions and their care providers, U.S. Pain Foundation helps individuals find resources and inspiration.

Chronic Mom

The purpose of my blog is to let sick people know that they are not alone and that there are other people out there like them. I also hope to make people laugh along the way because laughter makes everything better.

Counting My Spoons

I've been diagnosed with Fibromyalgia, Endometriosis, Hypothyroidism, TMJ, Migraines, and Cluster Headaches. I share my journey here in an attempt to educate and inspire others who are dealing with similar health issues.

I became a cyborg to manage my chronic pain

Implanting a new generation of spinal stimulators.

StatPearls

Improving the outcomes of epidural steroid injections in the treatment of acute or chronic pain requires careful patient selection.

Sunlight in Winter

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