A Better Way Of Managing Chronic Pain—Courtesy Of Pavlov

Pain and I have a long history. I have experienced it firsthand, basically every day since high school. I’ve dealt with it second hand, too—in the two-plus decades I practiced as a primary care physician, pain was the most common problem I addressed with my patients.

For all those decades, I held on to a flawed and unrealistic goal of finding pills or procedures that would abolish pain. I am…