What is pain neuroscience education and does it work?

Persistent pain is often attributed to tissue damage. Although tissue injury can be an important cause of pain, it doesn’t fully explain why symptoms may continue after the body has healed or why pain levels can vary significantly from day to day.

Pain neuroscience education, or PNE, has emerged from a different understanding of pain. Rather than focusing exclusively on where pain is felt or what may be structurally abnormal, PNE explains how your nervous system produces and regulates pain. The goal is to help you understand pain as a protective experience rather than a direct measure of tissue damage.

This approach has attracted increasing clinical and research attention. But does it actually work?