Not feeling pain might sound like a dream—especially if you live with chronic pain—but pain is one of the body’s most important protective systems. People with congenital insensitivity to pain often break bones, burn themselves, and never know it. Understanding why pain exists reveals just how vital those “ouch” signals really are.

Lingering pain, despite healing, may stem from peripheral sensitization, where nerves become overly sensitive. This can lead to pain from stimuli that typically wouldn't hurt, known as allodynia and hyperalgesia. Strategies for relief include graded movement, stress reduction, adequate sleep, addressing fear, and certain medications, which can help recalibrate the nervous system.

Living with chronic pain can feel like walking through a maze of misinformation. Let’s clear the path by busting three common myths and showing how movement can help you reclaim your life. Myth #1: “If it hurts, you should stop moving.” Reality: Mild discomfort ≠ harm In many chronic pain conditions, peripheral sensitization occurs—your peripheral nerves become overly reactive. This means things that shouldn’t hurt (like a light breeze) can feel painful, and mildly painful things can feel severe.

Neuropathic pain remains a challenging clinical condition due to its resistance to conventional analgesics. The purinergic P2X4 receptor (P2X4R), an A…

Molecular Psychiatry - Next-generation precision medicine for pain

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The layoffs jeopardize this resource, which has served more than 4,000 labs for about three decades.

Neuropathic pain affects approximately 10% of the adult population and is commonly treated with gabapentin (GBP), a repurposed anticonvulsant drug. Despite its widespread use, GBP's effectiveness vari...

Paracetamol has been used for decades to relieve mild-to-moderate pain. Its analgesic effect is mainly attributed to its metabolite, AM404, acting ...

Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

Drugmaker Regeneron Pharmaceuticals will buy genetic testing firm 23andMe for $256 million through a bankruptcy auction, the companies said Monday.

Researchers in “natural language processing” tried to tame human language. Then came the transformer.