The Pain Epidemic: A Guide to Issues, Symptoms, Treatments, and Wellness

by Don Goldenberg

Overview

Internationally-recognized pain expert Don Goldenberg helps readers better understand the intricacies of chronic pain through the lens of personal stories, including his own.

One out of three Americans lives with chronic pain. Pain is the number one reason we seek medical care and accounts for 40% of doctor visits. Chronic pain is the most common cause of work loss world-wide. The yearly cost of chronic pain in the United States is between $560-$630 billion, higher than that of heart disease, diabetes and cancer combined.

Despite this, physicians and the public are woefully ill-informed about chronic pain. The litany of self-help books available to the public are largely misleading, quick-fix, junk-science. Although there is a major push to better inform primary health-care providers on chronic pain, they have been provided no authoritative treatment of the subject.

The Pain Epidemic provides the latest medical information and pathways to better understanding and treatment of chronic pain. Dr. Don Goldenberg, an internationally known expert on pain, here discusses such hot topics as the opioid epidemic, mind/body interactions in chronic pain, and gender bias, as well as the role of cannabis and new potential pain treatment. Interested readers will come away with not only a better understanding of the pain epidemic but of pain itself.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781538138366
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	10/07/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
File size:	731 KB

About the Author

Don Goldenberg, MD, is Emeritus Professor of Medicine, Tufts University School of Medicine and a member of the Adjunct Faculty, Departments of Medicine and Nursing at Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland OR, where he resides. Dr. Goldenberg has published more than 200 articles in scientific journals covering many areas of arthritis, rheumatology and chronic pain. His book, Fibromyalgia, A Leading Expert’s Guide to Understanding and Getting Relief from the Pain that Won’t Go Away (2002), sold more than 20,000 copies in the US and the UK. He received the Marion Ropes Lifetime Achievement Award, Massachusetts Arthritis Foundation, in 2008 and was named a Master of the American College of Rheumatology in 2009. He is the Section Editor for Pain Disorders in Rheumatology, Up to Date. Dr. Goldenberg has been included in each edition of The Best Doctors in America and selected as one of the “Best Doctors in Boston” by Boston Magazine. His medical expertise has made him widely sought out for commentary on national and local television. He’s been interviewed on the “Today” show and “Good Morning America” and his work on chronic illnesses has been covered in the New York Times, The Boston Globe and the New Yorker.

Table of Contents

Introduction vii

1 Chronic Pain: A Public Health Epidemic 1

2 Mind and/or Body 9

3 Nature or Nurture, and the Gender Gap 17

4 Pain Education and Misinformation 25

5 Fibromyalgia 33

6 Migraine 43

7 Tension Headaches: Jaw and Facial Pain 51

8 Chrome Low Back and Neck Pain; the Role of Trauma and Injury 57

9 Complex Regional Pain and Neuropathic Pain 67

10 Chronic Bowel, Bladder, and Pelvic Pain 75

11 Arthritis and Chronic Pain 83

12 Pharmacologic Therapy 91

13 The Opioid Crisis; Cannabis 99

14 Exercise 107

15 Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Including Yoga, Tai Chi, and Acupuncture 115

16 Mind-Body Therapy 123

17 Finding the Right Health-Care Team 129

18 Your Personal Guide to Managing Chronic Pain 137

Notes 155

Bibliography 181

Index 199

About the Author 203

Editorial Reviews

Armed with first-hand knowledge from his personal and professional lives, [Goldenberg] advocates for an interdisciplinary approach that can include yoga, meditation, and exercise. After all, he writes, chronic pain always involves both the mind and the body. Exercise, seemingly the cheapest, most effective elixir, decreases pain and improves cognitive and psychological health. Goldenberg assures readers that sufferers may understandably feel helpless and hopeless, but they can be reassured that chronic pain can be managed.

Booklist

Armed with first-hand knowledge from his personal and professional lives, [Goldenberg] advocates for an interdisciplinary approach that can include yoga, meditation, and exercise. After all, he writes, chronic pain always involves both the mind and the body. Exercise, seemingly the cheapest, most effective elixir, decreases pain and improves cognitive and psychological health. Goldenberg assures readers that sufferers may understandably feel helpless and hopeless, but they can be reassured that chronic pain can be managed.

From the Publisher