Beyond Pain: Making the Mind-Body Connection

By David Israelson and Angela Mailis-Gagnon

Book Overview

"The range of topics covered in Beyond Pain is very wide, and one is likely to find almost any question about pain that one has ever puzzled over explored somewhere in its pages." - From the Foreword by Oliver Sacks

With its gripping firsthand stories of patients and their ailments, Beyond Pain opens the door to our understanding of the mysteries of pain.

Beyond Pain delves into the condition of chronic pain to help us better understand its complexities, showing pain to be both a sensory experience and an interaction between mind and body. Based on author Angela Mailis-Gagnon's extensive research and daily practice at a major urban hospital pain clinic, Beyond Pain uses case studies drawn from both her own practice and her personal experience.

Mailis-Gagnon describes the latest treatments and options for sufferers of chronic pain; techniques used to block pain; the effects of chronic pain; and cultural, gender, and genetic differences in the perception of pain. She shares her cutting-edge findings and observations, describes current treatments and options for sufferers of chronic pain, and examines the effects of chronic pain on the individuals who live with it.

Accessibly and engagingly written, the book will appeal to chronic pain sufferers and their families, as well as to health care practitioners who work with patients' pain.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0472030825
• ISBN13: 9780472030828
• Release Date: June 2005
• Publisher: University of Michigan Press
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 7.1" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Beyond chronic pain

Being a chronic pain sufferer, this book has helped me cope with the debilitating pain. Very well written in layman terms. The writer demonstrates that there is hope for the future.

A fine study which outlines many different causes, experiences, and solutions surrounding pain

Beyond Pain: Making The Mind-body Connection isn't a scholarly analysis of pain management but a set of firsthand stories of patients and problems which are used to illustrate the condition of chronic pain and the complexities surrounding its management. Case studies from the authors' own practices and experiences describes options, techniques to block pain, lasting effects of chronic pain, and how pain experiences differ between patients. A fine study which outlines many different causes, experiences, and solutions surrounding pain.

Excellent, important, and useful

"Beyond Pain" is an informative and important book for any person in chronic pain. Well-written, readable, sensible, and up-to-date, it illuminates general aspects of pain theory and treatment while providing fascinating case studies / anecdotes. The mind and the body are shown to be not only interrelated but inseparable. And the qualifications of Dr. Mailis-Gagnon are indisputably impeccable. I suffer from chronic pain myself. I have read a lot of books on chronic pain of various types, even a couple of medical texts, but I found this book newly informative and mind-expanding. This book is aimed to a general reader; no prior medical knowledge is assumed.This book will be useful for anyone in chronic pain, including sufferers of fibromyalgia, myofascial or muscle pain, neuropathic or nerve pain, back pain; women, men, Canadians, whomever. It will even give you a few good laughs.Three words: READ THIS BOOK!