Contemporary Issues in Chronic Pain Management

PROFESSOR SIR KENNETH L. STUART Pain control has become one ofmedicine's most rapidly growing disciplines, and Iwelcome the opportunity to write this foreword to abook that Iam sure will make its own unique contribution to advancing this discipline. My pleasure in writing it is heightened by my pride in the fact that its editor was at one time an undergraduate student of mine at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica. One of the uncertainties teachers always face is that they can never predict how their charges will turn out. This uncertainty has been happily resolved. Dr. Parris' professional career has been marked by the same dedication and commitment that characterized his undergraduate days and that clearly has been brought to the preparation of this scholarly and practical work. Pain reliefhas been until recently acomparatively neglected field. Its neglect was determined not so much by lack ofprofessional awareness ofits import­ ance but mainly because so little could be done about it in the past.

1. Historical Perspectives on Pain Management.- 2. Pain, Ethnicity, and Culture.- 3. Recent Physiological Studies of Pain.- 4. Analgesiology: A New Approach to Pain.- 5. Endorphins and Narcotic Drugs: Pain Control Paradigms vs. Legal Realities.- 6. Pharmacology of Substance P and Related Tachykinins.- 7. Somatostatin and Chronic Pain Management.- 8. Perspectives of Capsaicin-Type Agents in Pain Therapy and Research.- 9. Pain Measurement.- 10. Selective Tissue Conductance in the Assessment of Sympathetically Mediated Pain.- 11. Visceral and Referred Pain.- 12. Nerve Block Therapy in Chronic Pain Management.- 13. Management of Headache.- 14. The Role of Substance P and Related Neuropeptides in Chronic Pain Mechanisms.- 15. Current Therapy of Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy.- 16. Differential Diagnosis of Painful Conditions and Thermography.- 17. Psychological Assessment and Treatment of Cancer Pain.- 18. Low-Level Laser Biomodulation for Chronic Pain Management.- 19. Neurosurgical Approaches to Chronic Pain Management.