Basic science and clinical pain research is particularly challenging for several reasons. First, pain is a subjective experience in response to nociception that follows actual or potential tissue damage. Since the ability to respond to this warning signal is essential for our survival, the nociceptive system that produces and transmits nociceptive signals is remarkably redundant and involves diffuse regions of the central nervous system. Second, unlike other sensory modalities, pain is a multi-dimensional experience including at least cognitive, affective, and sensory-discriminative components. Third, pain experiences can be influenced by psychological, socioeconomic, cultural, and genetic predispositions, making it exceedingly complicated to study pain and pain modulation. The topics covered in this volume are carefully selected and directly related to the daily practice of pain medicine. These topics include 1) central mechanisms of pain and pain modulation (Dickenson, Donovan-Rodriguez, Mattews) and clinical use of ion channel blockers (Chen); 2) spinal glutamatergic mechanisms (Guo, Dubner, Ren) and issues related to glutamate receptor antagonists in pain management (Mao); 3) basic science of opioid analgesics (Gintzler, Chakrabarti) and clinical opioid use (Smith, McCleane); 4) inflammatory cytokines (Samad) and clinical use of anti-inflammatory drugs (Fink, Brenner); 5) role of the sympathetic nervous system in pain mechanisms and its relation to clinical pain management (Sharma, Raja); 6) preclinical studies on tricyclic antidepressants (Gerner, Wang) and clinical use of antidepressants in pain management (Greenberg); 7) developing pain pathways and analgesic mechanisms during the developmental stage (Fitzgerald) and challenges of pediatric pain management (Lebel); 8) basic science mechanisms of serotonin agonists and their use in the clinical management of migraine headache (Biondi); 9) clinical research on gender differences in clinical pain and their implications for clinical pain management (Holdcroft); 10) current modalities of clinical cancer pain management (Popescu, Hord); and 11) preclinical and clinical information on alternative medicine (Chen).

One of the Most Rapidly Advancing Fields in Modern Neuroscience The success of molecular biology and the new tools derived from molecular genetics have revolutionized pain research and its translation to therapeutic effectiveness. Bringing together recent advances in modern neuroscience regarding genetic studies in mice and humans and the practical

There were no medical oncologists until a few decades ago. In the early 1960s, not only were there no such specialists, many practitioners regarded the treatment of terminally-ill cancer patients with heroic courses of chemotherapy as highly questionable. Physicians loath to assign patients randomly to competing treatments also expressed their outright opposition to the randomized clinical trials that were then relatively rare. And yet today these trials form the basis of medical oncology. How did such a spectacular change occur? How did medical oncology move from a non-entity and in some regards a reviled practice to the central position it now occupies in modern medicine? Cancer on Trial answers these questions by exploring how practitioners established a new style of practice, at the center of which lies the cancer clinical trial.

Research is finally acknowledging that sex differences in pain perception are experimental opportunities rather than obstacles. For the International Association for the Study of Pain, 32 specialists in 18 contributions explore basic biopsychosocial considerations for sex, gender, and pain research; and sex-related differences in experimental pain responses, and in clinical conditions (e.g. headache disorders, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome). The concluding paper by K. Berkley (neuroscience, Florida State U., Tallahassee) proposes a developmental lifespan framework for the complex issue of whether there is characteristic female pain as vs. male pain. Fillingim is in the U. of Florida's College of Dentistry. For those keeping count of such matters, there is about a 40:60 percent ratio of female to male authors. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) remains a significant source of death and permanent disability, contributing to nearly one-third of all injury related deaths in the United States and exacting a profound personal and economic toll. Despite the increased resources that have recently been brought to bear to improve our understanding of TBI, the developme

Sixth edition of the hugely successful, internationally recognised textbook on global public health and epidemiology, with 3 volumes comprehensively covering the scope, methods, and practice of the discipline