Pain Management Part I, An Issue of Medical Clinics

Tens of millions of Americans suffer from debilitating chronic pain. Every day, primary care physicians are witnessing the devastating impact of this pain on the lives of patients and the strong desire of patients for more options to help manage their pain. This timely and up-to-date issue of the Medical Clinics of North America, Guest Edited by leading expert Dr. Howard Smith, is devoted to the newest and most effective treatments for management of chronic as well as acute pain. Topics include pain pathophysiology, taxonomy of pain, evaluation of chronic pain, problems with insurance-based research on chronic pain, opioids, opioid tolerance, documentation and potential documentation tools in long-term opioid therapy, non-opioid analgesics, adjuvants, topical analgesics, and intrathecal analgesia. Different overall approaches to pain management are also discussed, including behavioral medicine approaches, physical medicine approaches, complimentary and alternative medical approaches, and interventional approaches.