Unfortunately most chronic pain has no clear cause. That's why spinal surgery is much more discouraged these days for spinal pain. Artifacts on spinal MRIs for

Unfortunately most chronic pain has no clear cause. That's why spinal surgery is much more discouraged these days for spinal pain. Artifacts on spinal MRIs for example are only slightly correlated with pain. Many people have severe problems in their spine and no chronic spinal pain and many people have no clear problem and terrible spinal pain. The nervous system is complicated and there are a lot of risk factors for developing chronic pain: job dissatisfaction, sitting all day long, depression, repetitive strain, stress, etc. And no, it isn't mental or psychosomatic, it's very real. It's in the peripheral nervous system and the base of the brain.