Publications
APS Bulletin • Volume 14, Number 3, 2004
Resource Reviews
John D. Loeser, MD, Department Editor
Psychosocial Aspects of Pain: A Handbook for Health Care Providers
R.H. Dworkin and W.S. Breitbart, (Eds), Progress in Pain Research and Management Volume 27, IASP Press, Seattle, 2004, 665 pages, hard bound. ISBN 0-931092-48-5. $69.00 members, $89.00 nonmembers.
This book is a very nice review of selected topics in the psychological aspects of pain. An all-star cast of 47 expert authors, 7 of whom are not from the United States, cover the issues of pain concepts, evaluation of pain patients, treating pain patients, complex disorders, specific populations, and special issues. The opening chapter by Chapman and Okifuji is superb and sets the stage for the rest of the volume. Most of the chapters are written from an “academic,” or “scholarly,” perspective and some contain information that may be difficult to put into clinical practice. Each chapter is well stocked with current references.
So much has been written in such great detail on such things as pain assessment, headache, pain in children, pain in the aged, and drug abuse in chronic pain patients that brief chapters in this book may not do justice to the complexities of the topics. There are other texts that cover a similar spectrum of information in similar detail. This book can serve as a starting point for a review of current thinking about psychological issues in pain management. Like all of the IASP Press books, it is well constructed, easy to read, and helpful in the effort to broaden understanding about pain.
Dr. Loeser is Professor of Neurological Surgery and Anesthesiology at the University of Washington in Seattle.
Reviewer content represents the opinion of the reviewer, not APS.
Please direct your suggestions for future Resource Reviews to John D. Loeser, MD, Department Editor, at jdloeser@u.washington.edu