As Pain Awareness Month draws to a close this September, Dr. Eric Anderson, a neurologist and chief medical officer of Lin Health, the virtual health care company based in Denver, CO, is calling for a broader understanding of chronic pain that goes beyond the site of injury. He argues that the nervous system often plays a far larger role in persistent pain than many patients and clinicians realize, and that addressing how the brain processes and responds to pain signals is essential for meaningful recovery.
"Pain is always produced by the brain and the nervous system," Dr. Anderson said. "Now when someone hears 'it's in your brain,' they often hear 'it's imaginary.' But it's quite the opposite. Your pain is very very real. It's generated by real circuits in a real nervous system." He explained that in chronic pain, this interpretation can lead to central sensitization, a process in which the nervous system becomes oversensitive, so that even a light touch can trigger a pain response. Understanding central sensitization, he noted, opens up new treatment avenues beyond simply treating the part of the body that hurts. "And the nervous system is plastic, meaning that what it may have learned, it can unlearn," he added. "And I think that that is the most encouraging news in pain medicine right now."
That principle is central to Lin Health's brain-based approach, which combines modern clinical understanding with evidence-based behavioral therapies. The company's virtual program matches each patient with a trained pain-recovery coach after a medical review, then provides a personalized plan that incorporates Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Emotional Awareness and Expression Therapy (EAET), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT), among other methods. These therapies are designed to help patients understand how pain is processed, reduce fear and reactivity around symptoms, and develop new responses to pain.
Patients engage with their coach through weekly live sessions and in-app messaging, and they can access daily exercises and other resources via the Lin Health app, available on the Google Play Store for Android devices or the Apple App Store for iPhones. The company reports that 92% of patients experience significant improvement in pain and level of function, pain intensity is reduced by 45%, and 59% of patients with medium-to-high pain reduce their pain to low or no pain after six months. Lin Health currently holds a 4.8 rating on TrustPilot.com.
The implications of Dr. Anderson's message extend beyond Pain Awareness Month. By focusing on how the nervous system processes pain rather than solely where it is felt, Lin Health's model offers a scalable, insurance-covered alternative for patients who have struggled with traditional symptom management. As opioid alternatives and non-pharmacologic treatments gain traction, this nervous-system-centered approach could become a more standard part of chronic pain care, giving millions of people new hope for lasting relief.
