The Therapy of Pain

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xix

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2. Neurological aspects of pain therapy

   • B. D. Wyke

   Pages 1-30

3. Current views on the role of the psychiatrist in the management of chronic pain

   • I. Pilowsky

   Pages 31-60

4. Current views on the management of a pain relief centre

   • S. Lipton

   Pages 61-85

5. Current views of the pharmacological management of pain

   • N. E. Williams

   Pages 87-110

6. Current views on the use of nerve blocking in the relief of chronic pain

   • A. S. Brown

   Pages 111-134

7. Current views on the role of neurosurgery for pain relief

   • E. Hitchcock

   Pages 135-170

8. Current views on non-invasive methods in pain relief

   • M. Mehta

   Pages 171-189

9. Current views on the management of pain in the cancer patient

   • R. D. Hunter

   Pages 191-214

10. Current views on pain relief and terminal care

    • Cicely Saunders

    Pages 215-241

11. Back Matter

    Pages 243-250

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The past few years have seen the publication of a large number of articles and not a few books on the subject of relief of intractable pain. New ideas have been put forward on pain mechanisms, new methods of treatment have been reported and improved results c1aimed, and a growing catalogue of complications oftreatment has been recorded. The vast and expanding literature on the subject poses for the reader the dual problems of surveil­ lance and of assessment. The object of the present book is to provide a critical and constructive review of current writings and ideas on a wide range of aspects of the nature of intractable pain, particularly of present day practice and new ideas on treatment. Each chapter is written by an acknowledged authority and the approach throughout is practical rather than academic. In editing the individual chapters an effort was made to achieve a contemporary approach and to eliminate material which was unduly historicalor retrospective in content. At the same time the individ­ ual style of the authors was retained as far as possible. For decades chronic pain has been a therapeutic 'no man's land'. For the surgeon pain was an unfortunate complication wh ich not infrequently followed surgery; for the physician it was a distressing symptom in a number of disease syndromes; to the psychiatrist it was one of a number of features in many cases of mental illness.

• pain

• Regional Pain Relief Centre, Hope Hospital, University of Manchester School of Medicine, Salford, England

  Mark Swerdlow

Policies and ethics