Back pain is very hard (often impossible) to diagnose and to specify, hence heavy painkillers are thrown at people. But the only way to beat the pain is to understand it. Based on cutting-edge research into back pain and the psychology of pain itself, David Rogers and Grahame Brown have set up the Functional Restoration Service at the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital in Birmingham – the UK’s leading centre for back pain. Here they have developed the pioneering BIOPSYCHOSOCIAL approach.