Pain Reprocessing Therapy

A new study published in JAMA Network Open suggests that a psychological treatment called “pain reprocessing therapy” may help those struggling with chronic back pain cope with that pain by essentially turning down the dial on (or completely turning off) bodily signals that tell their brain something is wrong.

This therapy is premised on the idea that some types of chronic pain may be primarily the consequence of a recalibration of one’s pain system: the body telling the brain that a certain part hurts for long enough that it eventually gets stuck, signaling pain even long after the injuries that caused the original pain have healed.

In such circumstances, there’s no longer a practical reason for the pain system to be triggering in relation to that portion of the body, but it continues to do so, nonetheless.