What is pain? What are the most effective and least harmful ways for health care providers to address it? With the nation in the grips of an opioid crisis, answers to these questions has never been more important. Opioids are killing Americans by the tens of thousands annually.

Cardiologist Haider Warraich expands on his op-ed in the New York Times. In it he asks the question: "Is Pain a Sensation or an Emotion?" He explains what that question is all about and how modern society could learn from the ancient Greeks' concept of pain and suffering. What does Warraich think are the keys to decreasing opioid use? Why are exercise and physical therapy—per APTA's safe pain management campaign—cornerstones of that effort? He answers those questions and more.

Learn more about how physical therapists manage pain.

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Haider Warraich, MD, is a physician in the Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiology program at Duke University School of Medicine. He was previously was a resident at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and an instructor at Harvard Medical School. He is an accomplished clinical researcher and author and frequent contributor for the New York Times and other publications. His books include “Modern Death – How Medicine Changed the End of Life,” and “State of the Heart – Exploring the History, Science, and Future of Cardiac Disease.”