This week is Book Week (kind of a going-back-to-school theme?) here at How to Cope with Pain, with 3 books related to pain reviewed for you.  Enjoy, and let me know what you think when you read 1 or all!

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Finishing up our book review week today, we have… Explain Pain, by David Butler and Lorimer Moseley.  A book every person in pain should have!

The old thinking about pain was that there’s damage somewhere in the tissues and it has to be fixed – think surgery – or covered up – think narcotics.  Explain Pain discusses at length how this view should be revised.

A few of the major concepts which are presented in this book include:

1.  If you have pain, it helps immensely to understand how your nervous system is altered.  You don’t have to become a physical therapist or doctor yourself, but because their treatment approaches flow from their theories, it’ll help if you understand why they suggest what they do.

2.  In chronic pain, the problem isn’t just where your original injury was, but in your spinal cord and especially your brain.  That’s why you need treatment that involves these areas.

3.  If you have chronic pain, your brain probably thinks there’s still danger to your body or tissue injury in your body – and thus continues to produce pain.  But – and this is important – your brain gets stuck in old patterns, so you have to help it re-learn that there’s no longer danger or there’s no longer any tissue injury.

Chapters in the book include:

• How acute pain is normal, and actually helps you avoid danger or more tissue damage.
• Basic anatomy of the pain system in your body.  But don’t think a tough neuroanatomy course – think a fun, engaging intro to your body.
• What goes haywire when you’re in chronic pain.
• Why chronic pain becomes chronic – why your brain can’t get out of the pain rut.
• How to treat chronic pain, including why it’s important to get moving, and how to live with pain, rather than figure you’ll get out of pain, then get back to life.
• How to use graded motor imagery and mirror image work to reduce your pain

This book comes out of the NOI (Neuro Orthopaedic Institute) Group in Australia, a ground-breaking physical therapy think tank.  But they aren’t just regular physical therapists.  I do believe this group is introducing the world to some of the most cutting edge ways of understanding pain, as well as non-invasive ways to treat and cure pain conditions that come directly from solid theory.  I can’t say enough good things about this group (except perhaps to wish that they came to the US more often  :)

For more information about the NOI Group, visit their excellent, comprehensive website full of info.  You can also order Explain Pain or their other products at this site.  This book is now available in the US through OPTP!

Let me know in the comments if you’ve read Explain Pain and your thoughts about this approach.

The other books reviewed in this week’s series:

• Painful Yarns
• Beyond Casseroles:  505 Ways to Encourage a Chronically Ill Friend