Pain research is still dominated by biomedical perspectives and the need to articulate pain in ways other than those offered by evidence based medical models is pressing. Examining closely subjective experiences of pain, this book explores the way in which pain is situated, communicated and formed in a larger cultural and social context. Dimensions of Pain explores the lived experience of pain, and questions of identity and pain, from a range of different disciplinary perspectives within the humanities and social sciences. Discussing the acuity and temporality of pain, its isolating impact, the embodied expression of pain, pain and sexuality, gender and ethnicity, it also includes a cluster of three chapters discusses the phenomenon and experience of labour pains. This volume revitalizes the study of pain, offering productive ways of carefully thinking through its different aspects and exploring the positive and enriching side of world-forming pain as well as its limiting aspects. It will be of interest to academics and students interested in pain from a range of backgrounds, including philosophy, sociology, nursing, midwifery, medicine and gender studies.

Pain is the most common symptom bringing a patient to a physician's attention. Physicians training in pain medicine may originate from different disciplines and approach the field with varying backgrounds and experience. This book captures the theory and evidence-based practice of behavioral, psychotherapeutic and psychopharmacological treatments in modern pain medicine. The book's contributors span the fields of psychiatry, psychology, anesthesia, neurology, physical medicine and rehabilitation, and nursing. Thus the structure and content of the book convey the interdisciplinary approach that is the current standard for the successful practice of pain management. The book is designed to be used as a text for training fellowships in pain medicine, as well as graduate courses in psychology, nursing, and other health professions.

Based on qualitative and quantitative studies in the United States and Puerto Rico, this book demonstrates the significant effect of patients' and health care providers' ethnic and cultural backgrounds on chronic pain.

The experience of emotion is a ubiquitous component of the stream of consciousness; emotional qualia interact with other contents and processes of consciousness in complex ways. Recent research has supported the hypothesis that important functional aspects of emotion can operate outside the conscious awareness. Primary types of emotions are found in animals, while secondary, more complex types are involved in interpersonal relationships. Emotions both influence genetic repair mechanisms of individuals and are responsible for group behavior. Many scholars and scientists believe that no scientific or philosophic account of consciousness can be complete without an understanding of the role of emotion.

Learn best practices and evidence-based guidelines for assessing and managing pain! Assessment and Multimodal Management of Pain: An Integrative Approach describes how to provide effective management of pain through the use of multiple medications and techniques, including both pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic treatment regimens. A holistic approach provides an in-depth understanding of pain and includes practical assessment tools along with coverage of opioid and non-opioid analgesics, interventional and herbal approaches to pain, and much more. Written by experts Maureen F. Cooney and Ann Quinlan-Colwell, this reference is a complete, step-by-step guide to contemporary pain assessment and management. - Evidence-based, practical guidance helps students learn to plan and implement pain management, and aligns with current guidelines and best practices. - Comprehensive information on the pharmacologic management of pain includes nonopioid analgesics, opioid analgesics, and co-analgesics, including dose titration, routes of administration, and prevention of side effects. - UNIQUE! Multimodal approach for pain management is explored throughout the book, as it affects assessment, the physiologic experience, and the culturally determined expression, acknowledgement, and management of pain. - UNIQUE! Holistic, integrative approach includes thorough coverage of pain management with non-pharmacologic methods. - Clinical scenarios are cited to illustrate key points. - Equivalent analgesic action for common pain medications provides readers with useful guidance relating to medication selection. - Pain-rating scales in over 20 languages are included in the appendix for improved patient/clinician communication and accurate pain assessment. - UNIQUE! Authors Maureen F. Cooney and Ann Quinlan-Colwell are two of the foremost authorities in multimodal pain assessment and management. - Sample forms, guidelines, protocols, and other hands-on tools are included, and may be reproduced for use in the classroom or clinical setting.

This definitive clinical reference comprehensively reviews the most advanced methods for assessing the person in pain. The field's leading authorities present essential information and tools for evaluating psychosocial, behavioral, situational, and medical factors in patients' subjective experience, functional impairment, and response to treatment. Empirically supported instruments and procedures are detailed, including self-report measures, observational techniques, psychophysiological measures, and more. Best-practice recommendations are provided for assessing the most prevalent pain syndromes and for working with children, older adults, and people with communication difficulties. The book also weighs in on the limitations of existing methods and identifies key directions for future research.

An examination of the two most radical dissociation syndromes of the human pain experience—pain without painfulness and painfulness without pain—and what they reveal about the complex nature of pain and its sensory, cognitive, and behavioral components. In Feeling Pain and Being in Pain, Nikola Grahek examines two of the most radical dissociation syndromes to be found in human pain experience: pain without painfulness and painfulness without pain. Grahek shows that these two syndromes—the complete dissociation of the sensory dimension of pain from its affective, cognitive, and behavioral components, and its opposite, the dissociation of pain's affective components from its sensory-discriminative components (inconceivable to most of us but documented by ample clinical evidence)—have much to teach us about the true nature and structure of human pain experience. Grahek explains the crucial distinction between feeling pain and being in pain, defending it on both conceptual and empirical grounds. He argues that the two dissociative syndromes reveal the complexity of the human pain experience: its major components, the role they play in overall pain experience, the way they work together, and the basic neural structures and mechanisms that subserve them. Feeling Pain and Being in Pain does not offer another philosophical theory of pain that conclusively supports or definitively refutes either subjectivist or objectivist assumptions in the philosophy of mind. Instead, Grahek calls for a less doctrinaire and more balanced approach to the study of mind–brain phenomena.