39. The Science Behind Reprocessing Pain

ACR on Air

In this episode we discuss how pain syndromes occur, what's happening in the brain, how to diagnose and explain these syndromes in our patients and (most importantly) how to help patients on the road to recovery. Our guest, Dr. Schubiner, has decades of experience in treating patients with these syndromes and uses randomized controlled studies to inform his approach. These studies have shown that a specific type of treatment leads to a nearly complete elimination of pain in a large majority of patients with chronic pain.

• Psychophysiologic Disorders Association Non-profit professional organization and clearinghouse for information, lists of practitioners, bibliography of research articles, and an online training course
• The Tension Myositis Syndrome Wiki A peer-run support group organization for people looking for help with chronic pain, plus a list of practitioners, and online support groups
• UnlearnYourPain.com Six animated videos for educating patients on pain and the brain, plus lists of training programs, and other videos/lectures; and an online program for patients
• Stress Illness Recovery Practitioner’s Association A site in the UK with training & online programs

Books written by our colleagues for patients:

• John Sarno—The Mindbody Prescription, Healing Back Pain, The Divided Mind
• Alan Gordon—The Way Out, pain reprocessing therapy for patients
• Howard Schubiner—Unlearn Your Pain and Unlearn Your Anxiety and Depression; books for patients with self-guided recovery programs

Other books:

• David Hanscom—Back in Control and Should you have spine surgery?
• David Clarke—They can't find anything wrong
• David Schechter—Think away your pain
• Georgie Oldfield—The key to chronic pain recovery

Books for professionals:

• Lisa Feldman Barrett—How Emotions are Made; on predictive processing
• Schubiner and Allan Abbass—Hidden from View
• PPD Association—Clarke, Schubiner, Abbass, Clark-Smith—Textbook on psychophysiologic disorders