When we started Cacti, almost no one was connecting chronic pain to trauma and the emotional brain. We intend to lead that conversation — weekly, in writing and on screen.
A growing collection of conversations on Cacti, our science, and the intersection of trauma, mental health, and chronic pain.
A short line about what this conversation covered.
A short line about what this conversation covered.
A short line about what this conversation covered.
We're launching a regular publication exploring PTSD and pain, the neuroscience of emotional processing, developmental trauma, psychedelics in pain research, and the emerging tools — from medicines to digital therapeutics — that could change how pain is treated.
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A preview of the threads we'll follow each week.
The mechanisms by which threat learning keeps the pain system switched on — and what turns it down.
The science of critical periods, attachment, and why adversity early in life raises lifelong pain risk.
How emotions are processed in brain regions woven directly into the experience of pain.
Autonomic balance, basal vagal tone, and the body's sense of threat versus safety.
What the research really shows about plasticity, pain, and the next generation of medicines.
CBT-based and pain-reprocessing apps — and the case for tools built for PTSD and pain together.
In time, we'll bring this intersection to video — interviewing researchers, clinicians, and patients on trauma, the brain, and pain. Our aim is to position Cacti as the place this conversation lives, and to make rigorous science genuinely accessible.
Suggest a guest or topicLong-form interviews with the people shaping the future of pain and mental health.