"Clinical studies clearly show that when we learn how pain works, then re-engage with the best treatments, recovery is possible," Professor Moseley said.

The professor of clinical neurosciences at the University of South Australia will give a talk at an event in Newcastle on Monday, titled New Understandings in Pain Management.

The talk coincides with rising interest in pain and changes in the way it's treated, particularly given the widespread problem with overuse of opioids.

Professor Moseley thinks of people's pain systems [within body and mind] as something that "gets better over time at protecting us".

"This is a critical idea because the science clearly says that overprotective pain systems mean the painful body part is actually a lot safer than it feels like it is."

This means that it is safe to move and load the tissues that are in pain, even though it may not feel like it.

"Overprotective pain systems prevent us doing the very things we need to do to have healthy, resilient tissues and a good quality of life.

"The pain system can be trained to be less protective again."

This was important because it "reintroduces the possibility of recovery".

Professor Moseley, who is a pain scientist, is raising awareness of his research through a non-profit movement called Pain Revolution.

He said about one in five people in Australia suffer from persistent pain.

"About half of them have high-impact pain, which means it is significantly disrupting their quality of life. All are affected to some degree," he said.

"There are no quick fixes - everyone is different - but with a journey of patience, persistence, courage and a good coach/educator, true transformation is possible."

The pressures of the modern world and how individuals react to it were inevitably linked to persistent pain problems.

"Stress makes pain worse and pain usually makes stress worse," he said.

"That's the thing with pain - any credible evidence that you are in danger has the potential to make pain worse. So stress, fear, anxiety, depression all co-relate with pain."

He said empirical data clearly showed that if people learn how persistent pain works, its overprotective nature, the multiple contributors to it and the ways in which they could retrain their system, then "excellent outcomes are possible".

He said the most common approaches to pain were based on "old understandings of how pain works".

These old treatments included focusing "only on the tissues of the painful body part".

"This means cutting it out or reinforcing it with artificial material, removing its nerve supply, strengthening it or preventing its loading through aids or functional adjustment," he said.

Other old ideas were "being resigned to pain and learning to accept it" and using "passive therapies or tasks that can temporarily relieve it".

He said all pain was "entirely in consciousness".

"It is always the result of the brain making its best guess about what would be most helpful for us as an organism," he said.

"This means that in all pain, everything potentially matters. As pain persists, the pain system gets more sensitive at the same time as the tissues healing.

"Over time, we slowly get more and more into an overprotected state in which things other than the tissues that hurt can become significant contributors to pain."

Most cases of low back pain, for example, were "not associated with a particular tissue-based diagnosis".

"Low back pain effectively is the diagnosis," he said.

In a similar vein, he said the condition called fibromyalgia meant "pain in muscles and tendons".

Nevertheless, he said there were disease processes often associated with pain, "particularly those that involve inflammation".

He added that inflammation sensitised the danger detection within tissue, but also the "danger pathways that alert the brain to potential need for protection".

Examples of this were some arthritis conditions and cases of endometriosis.

Common conditions that cause persistent pain include vehicle accidents, workplace injuries and chronic illnesses such as diabetes, lupus and fibromyalgia.

The professor's research group conducts experiments into the role of the brain/pain system and how it processes information and responds to this.

This includes examining why people hurt and keep hurting "when their pain is protecting body tissue that actually needs to be trusted, loaded and retrained".

He said empirical evidence showed that "repetitive thoughts about danger contribute to pain."

This might be thoughts about one's body being "broken, fragile, not fit for purpose, weak etc".

He said it was a "reasonable hypothesis" that psychological trauma could cause pain if the trauma had "bodily relevance".

Mike Shelley, a clinical psychologist with Innervate Pain Management in Broadmeadow, is co-ordinating Monday's event.

Mr Shelley said it was time to develop skills among diverse health professionals, so "access to treatment for people suffering is improved, especially in regional and rural areas".

"Pain is produced by the brain with input from the body [it's not the body producing pain]," he said.

"We have a hypothesis about increasing reactivity of the nerves called central sensitisation. While not proven, central sensitisation explains the way people react to pain and why it can become chronic."

With central sensitisation, the nervous system gets wound up and stuck in a persistent state of high reactivity. This can lower the pain threshold and maintain pain, even after the initial injury has healed.

Mr Shelley said chronic pain was previously considered "a psychological disorder or syndrome only".

Rest and physiotherapy were often prescribed and people restricted activities to avoid pain, rather than build function. People were given sometimes large doses of pain medicine, often opioids - a problem that remains in Australia and other countries such as the US.