Main description:

As a nation, we are facing an unprecedented opioid crisis that is killing more than 65,000 people a year. It is destroying our families and decimating our neighborhoods. And it is costing us billions. As more and more people are dealing with chronic pain, and as the opioid crisis reaches epic proportions, alternative approaches to understanding pain and its management are necessary.
Here, Dr. Akhtar Purvez, a seasoned researcher, pain specialist, and pain advocate, offers basic information about pain and pain conditions and considers how we approach pain from cultural, biological, and medical perspectives. He discusses the latest minimally invasive, interventional approaches like nerve blocks and ablation procedures, and neuromodulation techniques like peripheral nerve, spinal cord, and brain stimulation. The uses of marijuana and associated interventions is reviewed, and Purvez walks readers through the process of assessing pain, finding a doctor who can treat it, and methods for coping with pain through non-medical approaches like meditation. Anyone coping with pain or helping someone who is will find here a ready resource that offers hope and understanding.

Contents:

Introduction:
A Long Way from Kashmir
Chapter One:
Medications that Heal--and Kill
Chapter Two:
The Opiod Epidemic that is Killing Us
Chapter Three:
On Addiction Management
Chapter Four:
A Mystery and a Prize
Chapter Five:
Complex Nature of Chronic Pain
Chapter Six:
Culture of Pain
Chapter Seven:
The Stigma of Pain
Chapter Eight:
Chronic Pain and Depression
Chapter Nine:
Obesity and Chronic Pain
Chapter Ten:
Finding the Right Specialist
Chapter Eleven:
Searching for the Cause of Pain
Chapter Twelve:
Fibromyalgia Gets Real
Chapter Thirteen:
Other Pain Conditions
Chapter Fourteen:
Getting Moving--Exercise and Physical Therapy
Chapter Fifteen:
Interventional Pain Management
Chapter Sixteen
Alternative Management Options
Chapter Seventeen:
Marijuana--The Mystery Drug
Chapter Eighteen:
Pain in the Courtroom
Chapter Nineteen:
Co-existing with Pain
Chapter Twenty:
Toward a Painless Future