What does Rachel Zoffness mean when she says pain is biopsychosocial?

Rachel Zoffness, a psychologist at UCSF and author of Tell Me Where It Hurts, says pain sits where biological, psychological and social factors overlap, so treating only tissue and anatomy misses two thirds of the problem. Supportive relationships raise serotonin, dopamine and endorphins and turn pain volume down. Toxic relationships trigger inflammation and sustained stress and turn it up. Fear also amplifies pain through the amygdala, so understanding pain better can lower it.

• A listener named Bruce told the show his back pain and his ex-wife's migraines both faded after their divorce.
• Zoffness says 65 years of neuroscience contradict the purely biomedical view of pain.

Source: our own transcription of the episode. The full conversation is on Hidden Brain (2026-10-19). Read the whole episode summary →

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