Book Summary:
This book is about the many ways in which anxiety, depression, and anger can predispose a person to pain, trigger the pain, aggravate it, maintain it, in addition to being correlates or consequences of pain. These interactions are clearly illustrated and embellished with examples. Pain is described in terms of neurological signals, sensation, perception, cognition, and behavior, but with special reference to emotions, moods, and affective disorders. In each of the chapters on anxiety, depression, and anger, the author conveys the significance of emotional problems while also providing data on their prevalence and relationship to demographic factors. Underlying mechanisms are explored with keen attention to psychosocial and biochemical processes. Then, options are discussed for assessment and treatment. Psychological tests for anxiety, depression, and anger are pitted against one another to allow the selection of the best. Treatment strategies of both the psychological and pharmacological varieties are evaluated for effectiveness and side effects. Thus for anxiety, information is provided on tranquilizers as well as attention-diversion, thought-stopping, reappraisal, respiratory regulation, muscle relaxation, biofeedback, music, hypnosis, and massage. Depression treatment is described with reference to psychodynamic and cognitive therapies but with an in-depth analysis of whether antidepressant medications actually relieve pain or depression. For anger, a case is made for the novel integration of cognitive, behavioral, and experiential strategies. The final chapter succinctly summarizes all the main findings while also suggesting ideas for future study. The book is practical in its objectives to the very end. What gives it particular strength is the heavy reliance on empirical evidence and theory. In short, this book unravels the complex interactions among pain, anxiety, depression, and anger -- consistently sounding its relevance to pain sufferers, pain clinicians, scholars, and students in this field. |