The Truth About Chronic Pain: Patients and Professionals on How to Face It, Understand It, Overcome It.

ARTHUR ROSENFELD

With an estimated 25 million to 75 million sufferers, chronic pain has reached epidemic proportions in the United States. Yet Rosenfeld's research and first-hand experience tell him that pain management by health professionals is woefully inadequate. Many people who could be helped are not because of concerns about addiction, side effects ranging from respiratory depression to constipation, and insurance companies' spending caps on medications. Other patients in pain are afraid to ask for help because of the stigma associated with pain medication and the belief that pain is part of life. This leads Rosenfeld to question medical ethics in this area and wonder how it is that people can ignore others' chronic suffering. Rosenfeld shares conversations with 40 people, including health-care professionals, ethicists, scientists, religious leaders, and chronic-pain sufferers. That last group includes a former football player with a back injury, an artist who suffers from sickle-cell anemia, and a 15-year*old boy with Marfan syndrome who suffers pain so severe that it causes blackouts. Basic, 2003, 299 p., hardcover, $26.00.