. >> thank you, dr. sarno. now we'll start a series of rounds of questions, or i should say a dialogue with all of you. dr. sarno, something you just said. i'm going to skip around here a little bit. where is it that -- oh, yes. ms. veasley in talking about a report said that medical professionals are more likely to dismiss women's pain reports as emotional, psychogenic, or hysterical, quote, and therefore not real, leading to more frequent mental health diagnosis. so i ask you, is their pain real or is it just in her head? >> the pain is always real. but i think the problem is it's not recognized sufficiently that any emotional phenomenon can actually bring on pain. if you would like a physiologic plans, that simple too. the simple reduction of blood flow, which can easily be accomplished by the brain to vital spinal nerves, or any spinal nerve, but usually it's more in certain areas, the low back, for example, or the neck or shoulders, is easily done. and i think that it's important to recognize that emotions

dr. john sarno, as i said, dr. sarno is the author of four book, the first being mind over back pain in 1984, the second "healing back pain" in 1991. the third is "mind-body prescription" 1998. and the fourth book is "the divided mind" which i have right here in 2006. so dr. sarno, welcome to our committee. please proceed. >> thank you, senator harkin. thank you for inviting me. pain syndromes can be grouped into two categories. those results from injury. this is the way i see it, from injury, surgery, or associated with severe infection as seen in patients in an acute hospital setting. and those with pain in the back, neck, shoulders, and limbs of a psychophysical origin. the high incidence of the latter group has evolved into a public health problem of great magnitude over the past 40 years. it has been estimated that 80% of the population have a history of one of these painful conditions, which has led to the performance of a great deal of unnecessary surgery and the widespread use of pain medication. it is troub

veasley and also dr. sarno. so dr. maixner, and then ms. veasley and dr. sarno down here on the end. there you go. we welcome dr. william maixner. dr. maixner is the director for the center of neurosensory disorders for the university of north carolina at chapel hill. dr. maixner comes to us today with specific experience in pain management research. he has developed an oral facial pain management program at chapel hill. kristen veasley the director of the national vulvodynia association. recently she was appointed to search on the pain research coordinating committee at nih. the committee was created to coordinate pain research facilities across the federal government. and next we have dr. john sarno, a professor of rehabilitation medicine at new york university medical center and practitioner at rusk institute of rehabilitative medicine. dr. sarno, the author of four books on pain will share his work with respect to treating chronic pain. so i thank all of you for coming here. your statements will be made a part of the record in their entirety. and i ask

please come up to the witness table, please, so dr. sarno there on the end. there you go. welcome, dr. william maxner, doctor at the university of north carolina at chapel hill. he comes to us today with significant experience in the area of pain management research. he has experience working at nih and developed an oral facial pain management program at chapel hill. kristin, national director will share with us her personal story of chronic pain, and she was appointed to serve on the inner agency research coordinating committee at nih, and the committee was created to coordinate activities across the federal government. next, we have dr. john sarno, a doctor at the new york medical center and practitioner at the rehabilitation of medicine. he's the awe nor of four books and pain, sharing his work with respect to treating chronic pain. i thank you for coming here. your testimonies will be made a part of the record in the entirety, and i ask you to sum up in 5-7 minutes, probably a light down there, i don't get too nervous if it goes over unless it's a long time, but if you'

. >> if i might respond, i think what dr. sarno was saying, and i have looked at this a lot, it's not in someone's head, it's that certain psychological things that are happening in a person's unconscious can actually create things that cause real physical pain. as he said, the unconscious can sometimes in order to hide up some other thing in your mind could stem the flow of oxygen to a muscle or to a nerve. that tightens it up, and you feel real pain. i don't think dr. sarno is in any way suggesting that this is anything in your head. it's just that certain emotional or certain unconscious underlyings of people's minds sometimes create the pathways to real physical pain. am i correct in that? >> yes. as i said, emotional phenomenon can be responsible for physiologic pain. and that's the important thing to bear in mind. >> dr. pizzo, in looking over this relieving pain in all of america, and looking at some of the different approaches that were taken, i don't see that being researched that much. now maybe i just don't understand it