Prostituting pain.

As our understanding of the mechanisms of the brain and nervous system that underlie the conscious experience of pain has increased over the past 60 years, so too has the field of pain management. What began as almost exclusively the domain of anaesthetists has become multidisciplinary, and now comprises many other specialisms including neurology, psychology, nursing, occupational therapy and physiotherapy. This spate of activity has been paralleled by a similar growth in research: in neurophysiology, psychology and pharmacology as well as clinical medicine. Simultaneously, the pharmaceutical industry has spent billions of pounds and dollars in the search for better drugs for relieving pain. This ground-breaking book is compiled by former contributors to The Special Interest Group for Philosophy and Ethics of the British Pain Society. The issues discussed include facing the frequently unsatisfactory relief of chronic pain, the inadequacy of scientific biomedicine in offering answers, and ethical problems arising in pain medicine