PITTSBURGH -- Is your brain causing your back pain? Some local doctors and patients say yes, and they say new treatments work wonders.

Betsy Linarelli's back pain was excruciating. The registered nurse tried physical therapy, electrical stimulation and massages, but nothing worked to relieve her pain.

An MRI showed a ruptured disc, and Lenarelli visited neurosurgeon Dr. Don Whiting at Allegheny General Hospital.

"I saw him on Friday. He said, 'We can schedule you Monday.' I said, 'Thank you,'" Lenarelli said.

Whiting operated on Lenarelli because her neurological function was compromised, which led to unresolved pain.

"People with back and neck pain, the majority of the people have muscular mediated pain," said Whiting. "And much of the time, that muscular mediated pain is stress, anxiety, or sometimes deconditioning, and resolving those issues resolves the problem without any type of surgery. Mind-body connections have become an accepted part of pain treatment."

Dr. John Sarno of NYU School Of Medicine wrote a book, Healing Back Pain, about his belief that most back pain arises from repressed emotions.

Nancy Kennedy, a clinical psychologist at Allegheny General, admits it is easier for some people to deal with physical pain than their own emotions.

Kennedy said, "As a matter of fact, when neurological or neurosurgeons suggest they seek psychological treatment, they are insulted by that idea. They believe that to assume that psychological treatment is necessary means that their symptoms are make-believe, when in fact the symptoms are very real."

Besides psychotherapy, nonsurgical treatments can vary, depending on the individual. Biofeedback, yoga meditation and acupressure can combine with other flexibility and strength training.

At the pain program at UPMC, director Dr. Doris Cope and her staff identify certain stress-related pain as fibromyalgia, a condition when muscles tighten and clench and the blood supply to them is shut off.

"If we can teach relation exercises in the fibromyalgia workshop we have, if we can teach them to relax, and deep breath to have an alternative response to the clench, then they can do better," said Cope. "We can also teach life management skills to identify what stresses them and how they can make creative ways to avoid stress."

Kathy Buterbaugh's job is full of stress. She is a triage nurse who has a herniated disc. She and her neurosurgeon have decided to treat it nonsurgically, since 80 percent of the time, herniations get better with nonsurgical treatment.

Buterbaugh said she takes a "mental health moment" to control her pain, and while Linarelli's surgery took care of her acute pain, it is now up to her to keep her muscular back pain at bay.

Physicians told WTAE Channel 4 Action News anchor Sally Wiggin they believe our lives are far too stress-prone, and that exacerbates pain. Things like progressive relaxation and yoga really work, but alternative treatments are not the only answers for back pain.

Physicians often use a combination of injections, anti-inflammatory medication, stress management and emotional management.