Main description:

Designed for primary care clinicians, this book is about patients who suffer with long term pain. Written in a distinct, friendly style, it analyses ideas about pain from the simple to the complex and provides up-to-date and relevant information written by doctors whose practice is either wholly or substantially related to people with pain. It provides examples of everyday patients to provide clinicians with the confidence to prescribe and treat patients with more
difficult pain. In an attempt to 'demystify' some areas of pain medicine it also includes details of the science behind common conditions and their remedies in order to emphasise the psychological and social impacts of pain.

Contents:

1. Why do some pains become chronic? ; 2. Mechanisms of acute pain ; 3. Pharmacological targets in acute pain ; 4. Some treatments cause chronic pain: can we reduce the risk? ; 5. Assessing people with long-standing pain ; 6. Injections, invasive treatments and the 'whole patient' view ; 7. What should I feel like after treatment at the pain clinic? ; 8. Prescribing for people with pain originating in the nervous system: Part one - tricyclic anti-depressants ; 9. Prescribing for people with pain originating in the nervous system: Part two - anti convulsants ; 10. Strong opioids in the treatment of people with non-malignant pain ; 11. Pain of urological and genital origin ; 12. Cancer pain ; 13. Psychological aspects of pain ; 14. Non-medical treatment in managing people with long- term pain ; 15. Working across boundaries in pain medicine ; 16. Getting back to work