Commentary: That pain in your back? It’s really a pain in your brain

As a chronic pain sufferer, I sometimes surprise people by telling them that my pain doesn’t have a physical cause. It’s a mind-body thing, I say, related to stress and emotions. To many, this sounds like admitting to being a little bit crazy. And when I up the ante by suggesting they’ve probably had this kind of pain too, some become outright angry, interpreting my words to mean their pain is “all in their head.”

All of which makes published in the Journal of Pain a big deal. It offers robust evidence that the overwhelming majority of chronic back and neck pain cases —