Main description:

It is ironic that the most common symptom in the field of medicine is also one of the least understood. The present volume offers" a survey of many of the most recent relevant issues facing the clinician. The chapters included are original works by noted authorities in their respective fields. Pain, being a topic with many dimensions, is well-represented by authors from a wide range of clinical specialties: neurosurgery, psychiatry, radiology, internal medicine, child psy chology, neuropsychology, clinical pharmacology, gerontology, nursing educa tion, endocrinology, and physical medicine. Many of the chapter topics have never before been addressed in a comprehensive way, and certainly not in combination. It is hoped that the reader will be continually reminded of the mind/ body interaction involved in pain states. It is the editors' belief that a better understanding of the organic and psychological correlates of pain will result in more successful treatment and management for the patient with pain. Formal training for most practitioners dealing with the subject of pain is primarily limited to pain's relationship to specific disease processes. The present volume provides a more global understanding of pain and the patient with pain, offering specific treatment approaches based on such understanding. w. Lynn Smith H. Merskey Steven C. Gross Contents Preface Chapter 1. The Continuing Crisis in Pain Research Benjamin L. Crue, Bernard Kenton, Enrique J. A. Carregal, and Jack J. Pinsky I Chapter 2.

Contents:

1. The Continuing Crisis in Pain Research.- 2. The Opioid Neuropeptides Enkephalin and Endorphin and their Hypothesized Relation to Pain.- 3. Radiological Imaging of Causes of Spinal Pain.- 4. The Nature of Pain.- 5. The Assessment of Pain.- 6. Clinical Pharmacology of Pain.- 7. Psychological and Psychiatric Aspects of Pain Control.- 8. Personality and the Relief of Chronic Pain: redicting Surgical Outcome.- 9. Child Pain: Treatment Approaches.- 10. Pain and the Aged Patient.- 11. The Pain Clinic: An Approach to the Problem of Chronic Pain.