Needless Suffering: How Society Fails Those with Chronic Pain
Needless Suffering offers a sociological examination of a complex medical problem: chronic pain and the inability of doctors and other health professionals to understand and manage it in their patients. People in pain, writes Dr. David Nagel, are the poor of the medical world. Like the poor, they are stigmatized and left at the mercy of powerful social actors who tend to work in their own self-interest, frequently at the expense of those they propose to serve. This leaves those who suffer with little control over their own destinies and creates a dysfunctional status quo that harms instead of helps. Drawing on his own experience witnessing his mother’s chronic pain and numerous clinical stories from over thirty years’ expertise as a pain management specialist, Nagel looks first at patients, their families, and their doctors (usually not trained in pain management), and then broadens his canvas to elaborate a pain power structure that includes the entire healthcare community, insurers, lawyers, government regulators, employers, politicians, law enforcement agencies, and painkilling drugs. Concluding with concrete reforms to create more effective and compassionate pain care, this book is designed for pain patients and their families, healthcare providers, legislators and other public policymakers, judges, personal injury and other attorneys, insurers, government regulators, law enforcement personnel, and health care businesspeople.
1122920257
Needless Suffering: How Society Fails Those with Chronic Pain
Needless Suffering offers a sociological examination of a complex medical problem: chronic pain and the inability of doctors and other health professionals to understand and manage it in their patients. People in pain, writes Dr. David Nagel, are the poor of the medical world. Like the poor, they are stigmatized and left at the mercy of powerful social actors who tend to work in their own self-interest, frequently at the expense of those they propose to serve. This leaves those who suffer with little control over their own destinies and creates a dysfunctional status quo that harms instead of helps. Drawing on his own experience witnessing his mother’s chronic pain and numerous clinical stories from over thirty years’ expertise as a pain management specialist, Nagel looks first at patients, their families, and their doctors (usually not trained in pain management), and then broadens his canvas to elaborate a pain power structure that includes the entire healthcare community, insurers, lawyers, government regulators, employers, politicians, law enforcement agencies, and painkilling drugs. Concluding with concrete reforms to create more effective and compassionate pain care, this book is designed for pain patients and their families, healthcare providers, legislators and other public policymakers, judges, personal injury and other attorneys, insurers, government regulators, law enforcement personnel, and health care businesspeople.
14.99 In Stock
Needless Suffering: How Society Fails Those with Chronic Pain

Needless Suffering: How Society Fails Those with Chronic Pain

by David Nagel
Needless Suffering: How Society Fails Those with Chronic Pain

Needless Suffering: How Society Fails Those with Chronic Pain

by David Nagel

eBook

$14.99  $19.99 Save 25% Current price is $14.99, Original price is $19.99. You Save 25%.

Available on Compatible NOOK devices, the free NOOK App and in My Digital Library.
WANT A NOOK?  Explore Now

Related collections and offers

LEND ME® See Details

Overview

Needless Suffering offers a sociological examination of a complex medical problem: chronic pain and the inability of doctors and other health professionals to understand and manage it in their patients. People in pain, writes Dr. David Nagel, are the poor of the medical world. Like the poor, they are stigmatized and left at the mercy of powerful social actors who tend to work in their own self-interest, frequently at the expense of those they propose to serve. This leaves those who suffer with little control over their own destinies and creates a dysfunctional status quo that harms instead of helps. Drawing on his own experience witnessing his mother’s chronic pain and numerous clinical stories from over thirty years’ expertise as a pain management specialist, Nagel looks first at patients, their families, and their doctors (usually not trained in pain management), and then broadens his canvas to elaborate a pain power structure that includes the entire healthcare community, insurers, lawyers, government regulators, employers, politicians, law enforcement agencies, and painkilling drugs. Concluding with concrete reforms to create more effective and compassionate pain care, this book is designed for pain patients and their families, healthcare providers, legislators and other public policymakers, judges, personal injury and other attorneys, insurers, government regulators, law enforcement personnel, and health care businesspeople.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781611689631
Publisher: University Press of New England
Publication date: 07/05/2016
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 343
File size: 1 MB

About the Author

DR. DAVID NAGEL specializes in physical medicine, rehabilitation, and pain management at Concord Orthopaedics (New Hampshire). He is a member of the Pain Action Alliance to Implement a National Strategy (PAINS) and serves as New Hampshire representative to the American Academy of Pain Medicine. He lives in Gilmanton, New Hampshire.

Table of Contents

Foreword • Acknowledgments • Prologue: The Forest for the Trees • PART 1: POOR MAN, PAINED MAN • A Young Doctor Transformed by a Man in Pain • What Is Pain? Its Neurophysiology and Psychology: Chasing Two Moving Targets • You Do Have to Suffer . . . Just

What People are Saying About This

Ed Coghlan

“This book is a must-read because David Nagel remembers why he went to medical school. The United States has a broken pain treatment infrastructure that has patients and health-care providers in turmoil. Dr. Nagel has a unique understanding of both the problem and the solution."

Lynn R. Webster

“Needless Suffering is a remarkable book that has the potential to change the way we talk about pain in America. Dr. Nagel unveils the many unspoken truths about a flawed health-care system that imprisons chronic pain patients for life. This book should be mandatory reading by health-care regulators, lawmakers, and anyone who wants to remove the stigma of the most prevalent medical problem in America: chronic pain.”

Cindy Steinberg

“David Nagel has written a refreshingly honest account of his experience treating his patients’ pain within the larger context of the health-care system, the legal system, disability and insurance, the regulatory environment, and the business of health-care from his unique perspective as a pain physician . . . David Nagel’s compassion and sincere desire to alleviate human suffering will leave a lasting impression on his readers.”

From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews