A guide to overcoming back pain without drugs or surgery identifies psychological factors that can cause back pain, discusses Tension Myositis Syndrome, and offers case histories and results from mind-body research.

"Chronic pain is an epidemic. 50 million Americans struggle with back pain, headaches, or some other pain that resists all treatment. Desperate pain sufferers are told again and again that there is no cure for chronic pain. Psychotherapist Alan Gordon was in grad school when he started experiencing chronic pain and it completely derailed his life. He saw multiple doctors and received many diagnoses, but none of the medical treatments helped. Frustrated...

Out of 238 million American adults, 100 million live in chronic pain. When inadequately treated, it undermines the body and mind. Indeed, the risk of suicide for people in chronic pain is twice that of other people. Far more than just a symptom, chronic pain can be a disease in its own right-- the biggest health problem facing America today. Foreman offers a sweeping, deeply researched account of the chronic pain crisis, from neurobiology to public...

"Written by a medical expert trained as an anesthesiologist, An Anatomy of Pain is the first book to clearly explain the current issues and complexities surrounding the treatment of pain and how society deals with those in pain, as well as how our bodies relate to pain. Common conception still equates pain with tissue damage but that is only a very small part of the story--the organ which produces pain is the brain. Case studies show that a woman...