From the Popular Press: What Your Patients are Reading:

Patients with chronic pain often find it difficult to articulate the enduring pain they experience. Frustrated with the inadequacy of words, many patients suffering from chronic pain turn to art in an effort to illustrate the pain that they feel. Art has an ability to express physical and emotional distress that words often cannot communicate. Mexican artist Frida Kahlo became famous for her disturbing images depicting the pain she suffered after being impaled during a trolley accident. The images she painted spoke significantly louder than any words could in conveying her agony. Amateur artists can also find solace in expressing their pain through drawing, painting, or sculpting. Some patients have created works of art to bring to their doctor to more clearly articulate the pain they experience. The medical journal Pain recently highlighted examples from an online gallery of art created by chronic pain sufferers to call attention to the therapeutic quality of expressing pain through art. The editor-in-chief of Pain agreed that art often illustrates pain more clearly than words or medical tests are capable of. The images featured in the Pain Exhibit depict the desperation felt by many chronic pain sufferers on both a physical and an emotional level. The two creators of the gallery, both chronic pain patients, hope to publicize the problem of chronic pain. Doctors and caregivers should consider encouraging chronic pain sufferers to explore art as an outlet for expressing their pain.

Read the full text of the article on nytimes.com. Images from the Pain Exhibit can be viewed online at www.painexhibit.com.