The Chronic Pain Solution: The Comprehensive, Step-by-Step Guide to Choosing the Best of Alternative and Conventional Medicine

by Leigh Ann Hirschman and James N. Dillard

Book Overview

This title offers readers information on how pain affects your body and mind, including six myths that can keep you from healing. It also features a detailed guide to more than 40 treatment methods,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 055380183X
• Release Date: July 2002
• Publisher: Bantam
• Length: 464 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.5" x 1.4" x 6.4"

Customer Reviews

Dr. Michael L. Johnson

An excellent book!!! Dr. Dillard does a great job with his in-depth explanations of chronic pain and its various treatment protocols. In my 21 years of private practice have treated many cases in which patients who suffered from chronic pain were accused of "faking it" by their doctors. Chronic pain is REAL!! In my humble opinion, medicine does a great job in the treatment of acute care ( broken bones, heart attacks, strokes, etc.) but drops the ball when it comes to the chronic pain patient. Dr. Dillard shows you how to get back in the game!Dr. Michael L. Johnson, author of "What Do You Do When the Medications Don't Work--A Non-Drug Treatment of Dizziness, Migriane Headaches, Fibromyalgia, and Other Chronic Conditions".

Holistic approach firmly grounded in modern medicine

Chronic pain has become perhaps the most trying and least understood health problem in this country. Millions of people suffer from chronic pain, and most of them have little hope that their pain will end. Many doctors are ignorant about the pain experience of their patients, and some are even dubious that the pain exists!Part of the problem is that pain is an entirely subjective experience. It has no existence in the world outside of the pain sufferer (and the observable consequences of that pain). There are no instruments that can objectively measure pain. The plain fact, known only too well to chronic pain sufferers, is that nobody feels your pain but you, period. Dr. Dillard, however, among a growing number of progressive and caring physicians, realizes that the pain is real and has trained himself to appreciate and understand pain. On page 59 he even has a list of 68 adjectives for describing pain ranging from "aching" to "gnawing" to "wrenching."Another part of the problem, as Dr. Dillard points out, is that many physicians have not had adequate training in pain management and tend to respond to their patients' needs from a narrow and relative uninformed perspective. A third part of the problem is that pain management is not a medical specialty. Most physicians simply are not experts in treating chronic pain.I am not a chronic pain sufferer, but I know about this tragedy because someone I love has suffered for several years from near-constant pain of unclear origin. She has seen a number of doctors but has found little relief. To some extent she has become discouraged and cynical about ever finding help. I hope she will read this book and be inspired to renew her efforts to manage and reduce her pain.Clearly this book does not offer a magic pill or any sort of miraculous solution. What it offers is an up-to-date and relatively thorough examination of ways to reduce and cope with chronic pain using methods combining alternative and conventional medicine.Dr. Dillard's training and experience as both a chiropractor and a medical physician, and his open-minded and far ranging approach to the healing arts make this well-organized, well presented and eminently readable book the best I have read on the subject. Dillard begins with an attempt to understand pain using a whole body/whole mind approach. He encourages pain suffers to become part of a "pain management team" that includes the patient along with doctors, physical therapists and other professionals. His is a pro-active agenda in which he advocates "Taking Control of Your Treatment" (title of Part II).Part III presents an evaluation of therapies from exercise, yoga, and meditation to acupuncture, pharmaceuticals, implants, and surgery. Part IV outlines the various complaints from headache through back pain and fibromyalgia to myofascial and complex regional pain syndrome. Part V focuses on "Special Considerations," pain management for children, pregnant women, the elderly

I have recommended this book to many friends

This book explains that there are many alternatives for the the pain sufferer, but she/he must participate. When medication alone didn't work, I tried physical theraphy, chiropracters, acupuncture and excercise (along with medication). I found that yoga, in less than a years time twice a week plus once with a video tape, has made the difference, moderating my 3 year bout with peripheral neuropathy. I can tell when I miss a session-so I don't. Yoga stretches the spine, strengthens muscles, relaxes the body. I am a 70 year old woman.

A Life-Saver

This is the best book I have ever seen on the subject, and in 10 years of back problems I've seen a lot. If I had the money I would buy 100 copies and pass them out to doctors and physical therapists (and also to my family so they could stop asking "if you've already had back surgery how come you're still hurting?"). Not only is it full of useful practical information, it breathes an optimistic, take charge, never-say-die attitude which is just what the doctor ordered. (I cannot imagine why one reviewer said it was depressing. I think it seriously likely that he/she read a different book). Highest possible recommendation!

What a find for a chornic pain sufferer!

After over 15 years managing my chronic pain, finally a book that clearly and concisely addresses current complimentary modalities of treatment.Dr. Dillard continually hits the nail on the head with the inforamtion he shares with his readers. This is the first book that I've read that really describes pain and how it works so that you can understand the process and how it may be interrupted and/or stopped for good.His advice in evaluating practitioners is very useful as well as information on diet and supplements that are most effective for different kinds of pain.I heartily recommend this book to anyone who suffers from chronic pain or anyone who has a loved one and wants to understand better how they may assist them.