Why Many Chronic Pain Patients Don't Improve – And the Pain Mechanism Doctors Often Miss
Experts highlight “nociplastic pain,” a newly defined pain mechanism changing how chronic pain is understood and treated
KOLKATA, WEST BENGAL, INDIA, December 31, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Millions of people live with chronic pain that persists despite scans, injections, and even surgery. For many, test results appear “normal,” yet the pain is severe, widespread, and exhausting. According to pain specialists, a key reason for this disconnect is that an important pain mechanism—called nociplastic pain—is still widely overlooked.
Nociplastic pain is now officially recognized by the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) as a third type of pain, alongside pain caused by tissue injury and pain caused by nerve damage. Unlike those forms, nociplastic pain arises from changes in how the brain and nervous system process pain signals, even when there is no clear injury or nerve damage.
“The pain is absolutely real, but the problem is not ongoing damage—it’s a sensitized pain system,” says Dr. Gautam Das, Founder of Daradia: The Pain Clinic. “When this mechanism is missed, patients often go through years of unnecessary tests and treatments.”
When the Nervous System Turns Up the Volume
In nociplastic pain, the nervous system becomes overly sensitive, amplifying pain signals and spreading them beyond the original area. This process, known as central sensitization, can make everyday sensations painful and lead to symptoms such as fatigue, poor sleep, brain fog, anxiety, and widespread body pain.
Conditions like fibromyalgia and chronic widespread pain are now understood to fall under this category. Yet many patients are still told their pain is “non-specific” or “unexplained.”
“Before nociplastic pain was defined, we didn’t have the right language,” Dr. Das explains. “That often left patients feeling dismissed or blamed, which is deeply unfair.”
A Simpler Way to Identify the Problem
To address this gap, Daradia: The Pain Clinic has developed the Daradia Protocol, a practical approach designed to help doctors recognize nociplastic pain during routine consultations. It includes a short 10-point checklist that looks at pain patterns, associated symptoms, and response to treatments.
Rather than labeling pain as “pure,” the approach acknowledges that most patients have mixed pain mechanisms.
“We don’t believe in black-and-white pain labels,” says Dr. Das. “Our goal is to identify when nociplastic pain is dominant enough to change how we manage the patient.”
Shifting the Focus of Treatment
Once nociplastic pain is identified, treatment shifts away from repeated procedures and toward strategies that calm and retrain the nervous system. The Daradia Protocol organizes care into three pillars: Explain, Move, and Calm—education, graded activity, and attention to sleep, mood, and stress.
“When patients understand why they hurt, fear reduces,” Dr. Das says. “That alone can lower pain intensity and help them engage in recovery.”
The full article explaining nociplastic pain and the Daradia Protocol is available at:
?? https://daradia.com/nociplastic-pain-the-most-overlooked-pain-mechanism-in-modern-pain-medicine/
Legal Disclaimer:
EIN Presswire provides this news content "as is" without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.
Information contained on this page is provided by an independent third-party content provider. Frankly and this Site make no warranties or representations in connection therewith. If you are affiliated with this page and would like it removed please contact [email protected]
