The Mystery of Pain

Douglas Nelson

The more deeply you understand the process of pain, the more power you have to influence it. Emerging advances in the science of pain are not only fascinating; they open doors to possible avenues of treatment. This book presents a comprehensive, accessible guide to the scientific understanding of pain.

Covering the traditional scientific models of understanding as well as the current research, the book explores the different types of pain, providing clear explanations of the structures and processes involved. It examines key issues such as the placebo effect, fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS), and how social support and understanding can be powerful tools in reducing pain's devastating effects. The book also looks at diagnosis and measurement of pain, and how different models of thinking affect the relationship between patient and clinician.

Approaching pain in a practical and scientific way, the book helps readers understand the processes of pain. It will be essential reading for anyone who wants to know more about pain and pain management, alternative medicine practitioners, massage therapists and psychotherapists.

Contents

Preface: Understanding that I Don't Understand. 1. A Deeper Understanding. 2. Alarms and Fires and Alarms Without Fires. 3. That Which Can be Known, But Not Seen. 4. Nocere. 5. Modulation. 6. Central Sensitization. 7. When the System Goes Awry: Sensitization. 8. Meaning and Context. 9. Attention. 10. Fear. Memory and Pain. Fear and Hypervigilance. Fear of Movement. Diagnosis and Fear. 11. Placebo. 12. Trigger Points. 13. Phantom Limb. 14. Social Support. 15. Fibromyalgia. 16. The Pendulum. Index.

Reviews

“It's a joy to help alleviate pain. It's equally frustrating to see a patient return with chronic pain that was at best temporarily eased. The Mystery of Pain puts those cases in context, providing an excellent framework for both patients and health care providers to understand why what works for one may not work for another. Douglas' use of current research and familiar examples clearly explain the revolutionary changes influencing our approach to a growing problem. I highly recommend it for anyone suffering from or treating pain.”

—Celia Bucci MA, LMT, author of Condition-Specific Massage Therapy

“This is a very well-organized book, interesting and accessible for laypeople and health care professionals alike.”

—Elisabeth Preston-Hsu, MD, MPH, physiatrist

“Douglas Nelson's book The Mystery of Pain is a compassionate work from the heart, very important for anyone who wishes to understand healing and to be healed. In this book, we are assisted with deep empathy to open doors to explore this mystery of pain in multiple dimensions. It's a lifelong journey to acknowledge this awareness, one of the universal noble truths we must learn to embrace. Thank you, Douglas, for your compassionate and learned guidance.”
 
–Chungliang Al Huang, founder-president of the Living Tao Foundation and author of Embrace Tiger, Return to Mountain: The Essence of Tai Ji

Author information

Douglas Nelson is a licensed massage therapist from Champaign, Illinois (USA) and has been in practice since 1977. In addition to his therapy clinic with multiple practitioners, his teaching institute (NMT MidWest) has conducted hundreds of seminars in Precision Neuromuscular Therapy to manual therapy providers in the USA and abroad.