“IT’S ALL IN YOUR HEAD” IS ONE OF those medical assessments sure to instantly infuriate the chronic pain sufferer. It’s like blaming your flatscreen TV for bad acting, says Blenheim GP Buzz Burrell, who is training to become a pain specialist.
Yet the brain does play a part in cases of chronic persistent pain, and it needs to be engaged to provide relief for sufferers.
Burrell explains the physiological process of the body’s response to pain: you stub your toe and a message is sent via a nerve pathway to your spinal cord. It then
