Pain management is a growing area of interest for many health care professionals. It is a truly integrated approach involving a team comprising medical practitioners, clinical psychologists, physiotherapists, occupational therapists and nurse practitioners. Different professions may work together but the approach may also be adopted by individual practitioners.

Pain Management: An Interdisciplinary Approach deals specifically with the management of potentially chronic l pain, how to assess patients with pain, the factors involved in the development of chronic pain and the setting up and running of a pain management programme. The main focus is on musculoskeletal and fibromyalgic type pain. Cancer pain is not addressed. The authors address not only what is recommended in the management of pain but also whether and why it is done, thereby covering not only the content of interdisciplinary pain management but also the processes involved.

An increasing number of courses on pain management are now being set up around the world. This has created an increasing and continuous demand for a textbook which could be used by those attending these courses and which would provide others who have to deal with the problems as part of their day to day practice with guide to best practice. The book provides an essential reference for all health professionals involved in all aspects of pain management.

• Provides extensive background material and covers broad issues which other books lack
• Focuses on not only what is done with the management of pain but whether and why it is done
• Includes the nuts and bolts of setting up and running a pain management programme
• Addresses the application of pain management programmes in a wide range of fields
• Has a multidisciplinary approach and therefore appeals to a multidisciplinary market

Contributors. Foreword. Preface. Acknowledgements
Section 1: Introduction to pain management.
Introduction to pain management (including epidemiology). Models of pain, pain mechanisms and the nature of disability. The nature of psychological factors. Social and cultural influences on pain and disability. Economic and occupational influences on pain and disability. Frequently Answered questions (FAQs.)
Section 2: Assessment.
General issues of assessment and clinical decision making. Medical assessment and obstacles to recovery. Assessment of pain, disability and physical function in pain management. Psychological assessment. Assessment of social, economic and occupational factors as potential obstacles to recovery. FAQs
Section 3: The delivery of pain management
Overview of approaches to pain management in terms of context, content and type of intervention. Psychosocial management by the individual practitioner. Early intervention in health care settings. Work retention programmes. Tertiary pain management programmes. Vocational rehabilitation. FAQs
Section 4. Conclusions and future directions
Index

By Chris J. Main, PhD, FBPsS, Professor of Clinical Psychology (Pain Management), Keele University, UK; Michael J. L. Sullivan, PhD, Professor of Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Canada; and Paul J. Watson, PhD, BSc(Hons), MSC, MCSP, Senior Lecturer in Pain Management and Rehabilitation, Honorary Consultant Physiotherapist, University of Leicester, UK