John E. Sarno is Professor of Clinical Rehabilitation Medicine, New York University School of Medicine, and attending physician at the Howard A. Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine, New York University

New York University

New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...

 Medical Center. He graduated from The Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons

Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons

Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, often known as P&S, is a graduate school of Columbia University that is located on the health sciences campus in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan...

 in 1950. In 1965 he became the Director of the Outpatient Department at the Rusk Institute. He is also the originator of the diagnosis of the controversial psychosomatic condition

Psychosomatic illness

Psychosomatic medicine is an interdisciplinary medical field studying the relationships of social, psychological, and behavioral factors on bodily processes and well-being in humans and animals...

, tension myositis syndrome

Tension myositis syndrome

Tension myositis syndrome , also known as tension myoneural syndrome, is a name given by John E. Sarno to a condition he describes as characterized by psychosomatic musculoskeletal and nerve symptoms, most notably back pain...

 (TMS).

Tension myositis syndrome

Sarno's most notable (and controversial) achievement is the development, diagnosis and treatment of TMS, which is not accepted by mainstream medicine. According to Sarno, TMS is a psychosomatic illness causing chronic back, neck, and limb pain which is not relieved by standard medical treatments. He includes other ailments, such as gastrointestinal problems, dermatological disorders and repetitive-strain injuries as TMS related. Sarno states that he has successfully treated over ten thousand patients at the Rusk Institute by educating them on his beliefs of a psychological and emotional basis to their pain and symptoms. Sarno's theory is, in part, that the pain or GI symptoms are an unconscious "distraction" to aid in the repression of deep unconscious emotional issues. Sarno believes that when patients think about what may be upsetting them in their unconscious they can defeat their minds strategy to repress these powerful emotions in this manner, the symptoms are seen for what they are and the symptoms then serve no purpose, and they go away. Supporters of Sarno's work hypothesize an inherent difficulty in performing the clinical trial

Clinical trial

Clinical trials are a set of procedures in medical research and drug development that are conducted to allow safety and efficacy data to be collected for health interventions...

s needed to prove or disprove the diagnosis, since it is difficult to use clinical trials with psychosomatic illnesses.

Sarno wrote about his experience in this area in his first book on TMS, Mind Over Back Pain. His second book, Healing Back Pain: The Mind-Body Connection, has sold over 150,000 copies. Sarno's most recent book, The Divided Mind: The Epidemic of Mindbody Disorders, featured chapters by six other doctors and addressing the entire spectrum of psychosomatic disorders and the history of psychosomatic medicine.

Statistical studies of TMS treatment

Sarno's books describe two follow-up surveys of his TMS patients. The first in 1982 interviewed 177 patients selected randomly from those Sarno treated in the preceding three years. 76% stated that they were leading normal and effectively pain-free lives. A second follow-up study in 1987 restricted the population surveyed to those with herniated discs identified on CT-scans, and 88% of the 109 randomly selected patients stated that they were free of pain one to three years after TMS treatment.

In 2007, David Schechter (a medical doctor and former student and research assistant of Sarno) published a peer-reviewed study of TMS treatment showing a 54% success rate for chronic back pain. The average pain duration for the study's patients was 9 years. In terms of statistical significance

Statistical significance

In statistics, a result is called statistically significant if it is unlikely to have occurred by chance. The phrase test of significance was coined by Ronald Fisher....

 and success rate, the study outperformed similar studies of other psychological interventions for chronic back pain.

Notable patients

Notable patients of Sarno include radio personality Howard Stern

Howard Stern

Howard Allan Stern is an American radio personality, television host, author, and actor best known for his radio show, which was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2005. He gained wide recognition in the 1990s where he was labeled a "shock jock" for his outspoken and sometimes controversial style...

, actress Anne Bancroft

Anne Bancroft

Anne Bancroft was an American actress associated with the Method acting school, which she had studied under Lee Strasberg....

, 20/20 co-anchor John Stossel

John Stossel

John F. Stossel is an American consumer reporter, investigative journalist, author and libertarian columnist. In October 2009 Stossel left his long time home on ABC News to join the Fox Business Channel and Fox News Channel, both owned and operated by News Corp...

 and television writer Janette Barber

Janette Barber

Janette Barber is an American stand-up comic, television producer, and writer. She has won six Emmy Awards, including five that she shares with the writers and producers of The Rosie O'Donnell Show. After that show ended, Barber continued to work with O'Donnell on The View and on O'Donnell's blog...

. All four have praised Sarno and his work highly. Stern dedicated his first book in part to Sarno.

External links