People who suffer from chronic pain are typically found to be more anxious and fearful of pain than those who do not. Recent evidence has shown that the fear itself serves as a mechanism through which chronic pain is maintained over time. Even once the muscle or tissue damage is healed, a fearof further pain can lead to avoidance behaviour, which over time, leads to deconditioning (e.g. decreased mobility, weight gain). This in turn leads to further pain experiences, negative expectancies, and strengthened avoidance. It is the reciprocal relationship between fear and avoidance that isthought to be responsible for maintaining pain behaviour and disability. With fear of pain known to cause significant suffering and functional disability, there is a need for a greater understanding of this condition. This is the first book to explore this topic. It starts by introducing the current theoretical positions regarding pain-related fear and anxiety alongwith relevant empirical findings. It then provides comprehensive coverage of assessment issues and treatment strategies. Finally, the book suggests further areas for investigation. Pain-related fear and anxiety are now receiving considerable attention, and efficient and effective treatments are fast becoming available. This book will help guide and extend our understanding of a condition that has been shown to be associated with substantial suffering and disability.

This book identifies fear of movement and injury as a primary issue in chronic pain management. It provides a detailed treatment manual on exposure-based techniques for the reduction of pain-related fear and disability in chronic pain.

“A rigorous, in-depth guide to the history, philosophy, and scientific exploration of this widespread emotional state . . . [LeDoux] offers a magisterial review of the role of mind and brain in the generation of unconscious defense responses and consciously expressed anxiety. . . . [His] charming personal asides give an impression of having a conversation with a world expert.” —Nature A comprehensive and accessible exploration of anxiety, from a leading neuroscientist and the author of Synaptic Self Collectively, anxiety disorders are our most prevalent psychiatric problem, affecting about forty million adults in the United States. In Anxious, Joseph LeDoux, whose NYU lab has been at the forefront of research efforts to understand and treat fear and anxiety, explains the range of these disorders, their origins, and discoveries that can restore sufferers to normalcy. LeDoux’s groundbreaking premise is that we’ve been thinking about fear and anxiety in the wrong way. These are not innate states waiting to be unleashed from the brain, but experiences that we assemble cognitively. Treatment of these problems must address both their conscious manifestations and underlying non-conscious processes. While knowledge about how the brain works will help us discover new drugs, LeDoux argues that the greatest breakthroughs may come from using brain research to help reshape psychotherapy. A major work on one of our most pressing mental health issues, Anxious explains the science behind fear and anxiety disorders. Praise for Anxious: “[Anxious] helps to explain and prevent the kinds of debilitating anxieties all of us face in this increasingly stressful world.” —Daniel J. Levitin, author of The Organized Mind and This Is Your Brain on Music “A careful tour through the current neuroscience of fear and anxiety . . . [Anxious] will reward the informed reader.” —The Wall Street Journal “An extraordinarily ambitious, provocative, challenging, and important book. Drawing on the latest research in neuroscience (including work in his own laboratory), LeDoux provides explanations of the origins, nature, and impact of fear and anxiety disorders.” —Psychology Today

Chronic pain costs the nation up to $635 billion each year in medical treatment and lost productivity. The 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act required the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to enlist the Institute of Medicine (IOM) in examining pain as a public health problem. In this report, the IOM offers a blueprint for action in transforming prevention, care, education, and research, with the goal of providing relief for people with pain in America. To reach the vast multitude of people with various types of pain, the nation must adopt a population-level prevention and management strategy. The IOM recommends that HHS develop a comprehensive plan with specific goals, actions, and timeframes. Better data are needed to help shape efforts, especially on the groups of people currently underdiagnosed and undertreated, and the IOM encourages federal and state agencies and private organizations to accelerate the collection of data on pain incidence, prevalence, and treatments. Because pain varies from patient to patient, healthcare providers should increasingly aim at tailoring pain care to each person's experience, and self-management of pain should be promoted. In addition, because there are major gaps in knowledge about pain across health care and society alike, the IOM recommends that federal agencies and other stakeholders redesign education programs to bridge these gaps. Pain is a major driver for visits to physicians, a major reason for taking medications, a major cause of disability, and a key factor in quality of life and productivity. Given the burden of pain in human lives, dollars, and social consequences, relieving pain should be a national priority.

Dr. John E. Sarno's groundbreaking research on TMS (Tension Myoneural Syndrome) reveals how stress and other psychological factors can cause back pain-and how you can be pain free without drugs, exercise, or surgery. Dr. Sarno's program has helped thousands of patients find relief from chronic back conditions. In this New York Times bestseller, Dr. Sarno teaches you how to identify stress and other psychological factors that cause back pain and demonstrates how to heal yourself--without drugs, surgery or exercise. Find out: Why self-motivated and successful people are prone to Tension Myoneural Syndrome (TMS) How anxiety and repressed anger trigger muscle spasms How people condition themselves to accept back pain as inevitable With case histories and the results of in-depth mind-body research, Dr. Sarno reveals how you can recognize the emotional roots of your TMS and sever the connections between mental and physical pain...and start recovering from back pain today.

Since the original publication of this landmark volume, tremendous advances have been made in understanding and managing psychological factors in pain. This revised and greatly expanded second edition now brings the field fully up to date. Designed for maximum clinical utility, the text shows how to tailor psychological treatment programs to patients suffering from a wide range of pain problems. Conceptual and diagnostic issues are discussed, widely used clinical models reviewed, and a framework presented for integrating psychological treatment with medical and surgical interventions. The second edition has been augmented with detailed case material and the latest treatment outcomes data. Thirteen entirely new chapters provide coverage of specific pain syndromes and disorders, as well as interventions for pain-related fear and preparing patients for implantable technologies.

Considered the most comprehensive handbook in the field, this rich resource reviews the biological, psychological, and social factors that affect health, health behavior, and illness. Many chapters review the latest theories and research while others illustrate how research is translated into clinical and community interventions to improve physical health and emotional well-being. Chapters examine health behavior processes within the social contexts in which we live, including family, social, and cultural communities. The handbook cuts across concepts (behavior change), populations (women’s health), risk and protective factors (obesity) and diseases, making it appropriate for a variety of readers from various fields. Featuring contributions from the top researchers and rising stars in the field, each author provides a theoretical foundation, evaluates the empirical evidence, and makes suggestions for future research, clinical practice, and/or policy. Novices to the field appreciate the accessibly written chapters, while seasoned professionals appreciate the book’s deep, cutting edge coverage. Significantly updated throughout, the new edition reflects the latest approaches to health psychology today: greater emphasis on translating research into practice and policy more on the socio-cultural aspects of health including socioeconomic status, gender, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, and aging two new sections on risk and protective factors for disease and another on social and structural influences that affect health more on prevention, interventions, and treatment in the applications section an expansion of the bio-psycho-social model across several levels of analysis, including cultural, macro-social, and cellular factors. The book opens with the field’s central theories, emphasizing the interaction of biological and social systems. Part II reviews the mechanisms that help explain the link between health and behavior across diseases and populations. The all new Part III focuses on variables that lead to the onset of major diseases or that are instrumental in promoting health. Part IV, also new to the second edition, highlights social and structural influences on health. The book concludes with applications of research to specific illnesses and medical conditions. The Handbook serves as a text in graduate or upper level undergraduate courses in health psychology taught in psychology, public health, medical sociology, medicine, nursing, and other social and allied health sciences. Its cutting edge, comprehensive coverage also appeals to researchers and practitioners in these fields.