RT Journal
A1 Ballantyne JC
T1 The pain chronicles: Cures, myths, mysteries, prayers, diaries, brain scans, healing, and the science of suffering
JF JAMA
JO JAMA
YR 2011
FD October 5
VO 306
IS 13
SP 1490
OP 1490
DO 10.1001/jama.2011.1415
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.2011.1415
AB 
Melanie Thernstrom, author of The Pain Chronicles, is a creative writer by training and by calling. Nothing she encounters is taken at face value: she needs to explore, and she needs to find expression. She also has personal experience with chronic pain. This makes her unusual, because rather than rely on the elusive “cure,” she has embarked on a journey of trying to grasp what pain actually is, what it has meant for humanity through the centuries, how its perception has changed, and how present-day science has profoundly altered the way it is understood. She chronicles her exploration through trying to comprehend her own pain. Pain physicians travel a similar route. When they start out, they see pain as something they can simply treat; as they journey, they come to understand the limitations of medical treatment and to understand that chronic pain is so internal and personal that it can only be greatly altered by the person experiencing it.