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Chronic: Understanding Pain
Millions of people live with chronic pain—everyday life is difficult and treatment is unreliable. So why is it still so poorly understood? And will there ever be a cure?
Chronic pain is one of the great public health crises of our age—virtually no-one is untouched, either living with it themselves or seeing their loved ones suffer. Yet it is a topic that remains in the shadows, too often brushed aside or treated as an afterthought. Understanding Pain is an urgent and vital answer to this silence.
In this fascinating investigation, Gillian Best seeks out researchers carrying out the cutting-edge work that could be the key to finally understanding and effectively treating this debilitating condition. Shining a light on the groundbreaking investigations being carried out around the world, Gillian searches for answers and wonders whether, one day, she may feel truly well again.
Chronic pain is one of the great public health crises of our age—virtually no-one is untouched, either living with it themselves or seeing their loved ones suffer. Yet it is a topic that remains in the shadows, too often brushed aside or treated as an afterthought. Understanding Pain is an urgent and vital answer to this silence.
In this fascinating investigation, Gillian Best seeks out researchers carrying out the cutting-edge work that could be the key to finally understanding and effectively treating this debilitating condition. Shining a light on the groundbreaking investigations being carried out around the world, Gillian searches for answers and wonders whether, one day, she may feel truly well again.
238 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 12, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 13, 2026
“To be a patient, you need a lot of patience.”
Chronic is a must-read for anyone suffering with chronic pain, or those who know someone who is. It’s a nice introduction into the subject, covering multiple aspects of chronic conditions, drug trials, current problems and potential solutions for patients, doctors and researchers.
"There’s a shift happening in the way we think about pain and that affects how it’s treated. Previously, doctors might have focused on treating your chronic pain at the site where it hurts, but now we’re seeing a move towards introducing psychology to ease it’s impact”
Gillian’s book comes from her own lived experience with chronic pain, but she has clearly done a lot of research on a range of conditions, drug trials and how it impacts both patients and the wider world. In all honesty, as a woman with multiple chronic illnesses, I know it’s easy to fall down the research rabbit-hole, but to put it all together like this must have taken a lot of hard work.
“Pain is such a personal, individual experience that it’s difficult to get across the idea that some pain is different than others.”
What I really enjoyed was the interviews Gillian carried out and the insight each medical professional was able to provide. There were plenty of things in this book that I hadn’t heard of before, especially Professor Chen’s work on ‘sng’.
“The field of pain has been dominated by Western, male-led theories’, says Professor Noel…” ain’t that the truth!
I’m hugely grateful to the team at Icon books for providing me with a copy of Chronic, and to Gillian for writing such an important book. I’ll be loaning it to my family members and recommending it among friends and my network.
A very important read for everyone.
Chronic is a must-read for anyone suffering with chronic pain, or those who know someone who is. It’s a nice introduction into the subject, covering multiple aspects of chronic conditions, drug trials, current problems and potential solutions for patients, doctors and researchers.
"There’s a shift happening in the way we think about pain and that affects how it’s treated. Previously, doctors might have focused on treating your chronic pain at the site where it hurts, but now we’re seeing a move towards introducing psychology to ease it’s impact”
Gillian’s book comes from her own lived experience with chronic pain, but she has clearly done a lot of research on a range of conditions, drug trials and how it impacts both patients and the wider world. In all honesty, as a woman with multiple chronic illnesses, I know it’s easy to fall down the research rabbit-hole, but to put it all together like this must have taken a lot of hard work.
“Pain is such a personal, individual experience that it’s difficult to get across the idea that some pain is different than others.”
What I really enjoyed was the interviews Gillian carried out and the insight each medical professional was able to provide. There were plenty of things in this book that I hadn’t heard of before, especially Professor Chen’s work on ‘sng’.
“The field of pain has been dominated by Western, male-led theories’, says Professor Noel…” ain’t that the truth!
I’m hugely grateful to the team at Icon books for providing me with a copy of Chronic, and to Gillian for writing such an important book. I’ll be loaning it to my family members and recommending it among friends and my network.
A very important read for everyone.
May 21, 2026
I can’t be mean with the author as she only wrote what she was told and what she found, and tbh for patients it’s a pretty good book, it explains why research is hard to develop and undertake, and it swings between autoimmunity, as you’d expect from her interest, and chronic pain.
My criticism is about bias, sorry dear author! Not your fault! While in the first 1/4 it talks a bit about bias and medical misogyny, then it goes to Prof Smith that, though saying he’s looking at pain in women, minimises it to “because we live longer” (but presumably with a western view) and talks about men and how they may not complain of pain and when they do - it’s serious, a massive bias and tale as old as time. Which hurt, a lot. But imho not the author’s fault, but the medical misogyny that can’t help itself - and why my PhD exists
My criticism is about bias, sorry dear author! Not your fault! While in the first 1/4 it talks a bit about bias and medical misogyny, then it goes to Prof Smith that, though saying he’s looking at pain in women, minimises it to “because we live longer” (but presumably with a western view) and talks about men and how they may not complain of pain and when they do - it’s serious, a massive bias and tale as old as time. Which hurt, a lot. But imho not the author’s fault, but the medical misogyny that can’t help itself - and why my PhD exists
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews