PAIN
EDUCATION.
Understanding how pain works is, in itself, therapeutic. Patients who grasp the neuroscience of pain respond better to treatment. Curriculum on two tracks — lessons for patients, papers for clinicians. Curated by the CEIMEC medical team.
Before treating pain, you have to understand it.
Pain Neuroscience
How the brain processes, modulates, and amplifies pain signals — and why this matters for treatment.
Central Sensitization
When the central nervous system becomes hypersensitive, any stimulus turns into pain. Understanding this changes everything.
Psychosocial Factors
Emotions, beliefs, and social context directly influence the intensity and chronification of pain.
Lessons for patients
Lesson · 01Acupuncture in Multimodal Pain Treatment
How medical acupuncture integrates with pharmacology, rehabilitation, and psychology in the management of complex pain
Lesson · 02Amitriptyline and Duloxetine in Chronic Pain: Synergy with Acupuncture
How antidepressants modulate pain through the descending serotonin-norepinephrine pathway, their limits, and why combination with electroacupuncture potentiates clinical results.
Lesson · 03The Problem of Chronic NSAID Use in Pain
Gastrointestinal, renal, and cardiovascular risks of NSAIDs — and how medical acupuncture offers inflammatory modulation without the side effects of prolonged use.
Lesson · 04Pain Catastrophizing: Recognize and Overcome
What catastrophizing is, how it amplifies chronic pain, and cognitive strategies to reduce it
Lesson · 05Acute Pain versus Chronic Pain: Why Are They Different?
Understand the fundamental distinction between protective acute pain and chronic pain as a disease — and why treatments differ
Lesson · 06Emotions and Pain: How Psychology Modulates Chronic Pain
Anxiety, depression, trauma, and stress: why emotions amplify pain and what to do about it
Lesson · 07Sleep Ergonomics and Pillow Selection After Acupuncture
How sleep position perpetuates cervical trigger points, the biomechanics of the cervical spine during sleep, and practical guidance to maximize treatment results.
Lesson · 08Exercise after Dry Needling: Strength and Eccentric Loading
Why stretching and eccentric strengthening after trigger point needling are essential to prevent recurrence — evidence-based protocols.
Lesson · 09Fascia: The Connective Tissue and How the Acupuncture Needle Acts on It
Anatomy of the myofascial fascia, viscoelastic properties, mechanotransduction, and how needling modifies the extracellular matrix — the science behind 'needle grasp.'
Lesson · 10How Acupuncture Works: Neurophysiologic Mechanisms
The science behind acupuncture: nociceptors, endogenous opioids, DPMS, inflammation, and neuroplasticity
Lesson · 11Movement and Pain: Why Moving Is Medicine
The science of movement in chronic pain: why avoiding movement worsens pain and how to safely return to activity
Lesson · 12Placebo and Nocebo Effects in Pain
How expectations, beliefs, and context amplify or relieve pain — the neuroscience of placebo and its clinical implications
Lesson · 13What Is Pain? Neuroscience for Patients
How the brain processes pain: nociceptors, spinal cord, cortex, and why pain is always 'real'
Lesson · 14Why Muscle Relaxants Fail in Myofascial Pain
Cyclobenzaprine, tizanidine, and carisoprodol: mechanisms of action, limitations in trigger-point pain, and the role of electroacupuncture as an option without sedation — case-by-case clinical decision.
Lesson · 15Central Sensitization: When the Nervous System Amplifies Pain
How the central nervous system 'learns' to feel more pain — wind-up, allodynia, and the role of neuroplasticity
Lesson · 16Sleep and Pain: A Two-Way Relationship
How poor sleep amplifies pain and pain disrupts sleep — the vicious cycle and evidence-based strategies
Papers for clinicians
Paper · 01Acupuncture and Research: Why Studying Acupuncture Is Hard
Methodological limitations of acupuncture trials: the placebo problem, the impossible blind, and what the current evidence really tells us
Paper · 02Effects of Acupuncture on Functional MRI (fMRI)
What two decades of neuroimaging show about the central effects of acupuncture — activated brain networks, modulation of key pain regions, and the real vs sham debate in light of the data.
Paper · 03Adverse Effects of Dry Needling
Complete clinical guide to dry needling safety: actual frequency of adverse events, prevention, management, and when to seek medical care.
Treatments beyond acupuncture
Acupuncture is not the only tool. Pain medicine brings together procedures with evidence for specific situations — injections, high-power laser, shockwave therapy, percutaneous neuromodulation. Indication depends on the diagnosis and the patient's profile.
Trigger Point Injection with Local Anesthetic
Wet needling for myofascial pain: technique, evidence, and response profile
Mesotherapy for Pain (Intradermotherapy)
What current scientific evidence says about mesotherapy in the treatment of pain
High-Intensity Laser Therapy (HILT) for Pain
High-intensity laser therapy: mechanism, evidence by condition, and limitations
Focal Shock Wave Therapy (f-ESWT) for Pain
Focal shock wave therapy: when it works, when it does not, evidence by condition
Radial Shock Waves (rESWT) for Pain
Radial pressure waves in myofascial pain and tendinopathies: current evidence
PENS (Percutaneous Neuromodulation) for Pain
Percutaneous electrical nerve stimulation: evidence, indications, and limits