Pain Sourcebook

by Allan R. Cook

With Americans spending more than $3 billion annually on over-the-counter pain medications, it seems that pain affects nearly everyone. But for millions, pain is more serious and debilitating. Backaches, for example, are the second most common cause of missed work days. They affect 15 percent of the adult U.S. population, and headaches plague more than 45 million people in the United States. Although pain is the most common complaint doctors receive, an estimated 50 to 100 million Americans remain under-treated for their pain. Pain Sourcebook offers the average person authoritative material to help in understanding pain and considering the options for its effective relief. The book includes basic information on the nature and mechanism of pain as well as on the common complaints associated with pain. It also considers advances in treatment methods and the attitudes of the medical profession toward the need to treat pain as a real illness.

667 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1998