I have dealt with Anticonvulsants and SSRI for Chronic pain for many years myself. The anticonvulsants used like gabalin and pre-gabalin block the gaba receptors from getting new signals... what this does is slows down the reaction to a stimulus. Some SSRI's do the same as well.

The other key factor to these is the link between Anxiety, pain intensity , and inflammation. If you can calm down the anxiety you can calm how much something is bothering/upsetting/hurting you. This can also be done with other things like bio-feedback, swimming, exercise, yoga, tai-chi, meditation, etc..

These help in the healing in a sense that it allows the brain to re-wire to less sensitive reaction to what is ailing you long term.