Chronic Pain

The effective management of pain is a problem which confronts all manual therapists.
This book provides a clear picture of our current understanding of pain mechanisms
and shows how that knowledge should inform approaches to treatment.
The knowledge of pain science that the book conveys will help the therapist
select the best approach to the clinical management of each patient.
Different types of pain disorder may require different management strategies which
may involve only one discipline or, at other times, a multidisciplinary team
which may also include medical clinicians, psychologists, occupational therapists,
nurses and other healthcare practitioners as well as manual therapists.
The book is divided into three parts:
• An introduction to the concept of pain and its neurophysiological mechanisms.
• A review and discussion of current and potential evidence-based evaluation methods.
• A review and discussion of common types of functional pain disorders.
This approach provides readers with a comprehensive reference to evidence-based
information that should enable them to manage their clients’ pain as effectively as possible.

Table of Contents:
Forewords by Philip Siddall and Michael A. Seffinger
Section 1 Basic Pain Mechanisms
Chapter 1 Peripheral nociceptive mechanisms
Chapter 2 Spinal nociceptive mechanisms
Chapter 3 Supraspinal Pain Mechanisms
Section 2 Epidemiology, Psychology, Evaluation and Treatment
Chapter 4 Epidemiology of chronic pain
Chapter 5 Psychological features of chronic pain
Chapter 6 Evaluation of chronic pain
Chapter 7 Efficacy of manual therapy for chronic musculoskeletal pain
Section 3 Clinical Presentations of Chronic Pain
Chapter 8 Chronic musculoskeletal pain
Chapter 9 Neuropathic pain
Chapter 10 Chronic Visceral Pain
Chapter 11 Primary headaches and orofacial pain
Chapter 12 Pain in the elderly.

Phil Austin is a UK-trained osteopath and researcher who holds a PhD in pain medicine. Austin’s clinical areas of interest include the treatment of computer-related musculoskeletal pain conditions and the effects of work-related stress on the severity and duration of persistent pain. Austin graduated from the European School of Osteopathy in 1997. Following the completion of his degree Phil worked in New Zealand, UK and Sweden and is now permanently located in Sydney where he combines his clinical work with research. This includes the investigation of clinical methods of predicting the extent and severity of pain in people with chronic pain conditions such as fibromyalgia and in cancer patients receiving chemotherapy. He is also a member of the Australian Osteopathic Accreditation Council and a leader in the Chronic Pain Practice Group. Austin began his postgraduate studies at the University of Edinburgh gaining an MSc in pain management and a PhD investigating the potential for multi-dimensional assessment of functional gastrointestinal disorders such as irritable bowel syndrome and functional dyspepsia. He works as a clinical tutor for the M.Sc in Clinical Management of Pain at the University of Edinburgh while also being involved in various areas of palliative care research at Greenwich Hospital in Sydney.