Brain Behind Pain

Dr. Akhtar Purvez offers readers insight into the complex relationship between pain and the brain. Readers will come to understand the vital processes guiding how physiological, anatomical, and emotional aspects of pain interact to both cause and cure pain.

Akhtar Purvez, MD, is a pain physician, researcher, author, speaker, and pain advocate. He has been actively practicing interventional pain management in Charlottesville, Virginia for the last two decades. In his practice, he offers a comprehensive approach that includes interventional, minimally invasive techniques in combination with non-opioid medications, physical therapy with stress on an active exercise program, and healthy lifestyle changes. He is actively involved in teaching the general public about safer options to manage chronic pain in an effort to improve their functionality and quality of life. He is the author of Managing Chronic pain in an Age of Addiction (Rowman & Littlefield) and resides in Charlottesville, VA.

CHAPTER ONE: MYSTERY A look at how humans have studied and tried to ward off the mysterious and universal phenomenon of pain over the centuries, from the ancient Egyptians and Greek scholars through the beginnings of Arabic medicine, the philosophy of Rene Descartes, and modern explorers such as Ronald Melzack. CHAPTER TWO: THE BODY'S CEO This chapter examines some of the many things the brain can do (and how science has regarded it), focusing on the brain-pain connection. CHAPTER THREE: PAIN IN OUR CULTURE How pain has infiltrated not only our bodies, but our cultural attitudes toward it. CHAPTER FOUR: ALL THE HURTFUL THINGS What hurts us the most? An examination of some of the pain's many manifestations and vehicles. CHAPTER FIVE: CHASING RELIEF The history of pain relief, from ancient remedies to modern innovations. CHAPTER SIX: HOW CHRONIC PAIN CHANGED THE GAME. Examines ways in which medical science has been forced to battle a different (and often baffling) subset of pain. CHAPTER SEVEN: BEWARE THE EVIL TWIN Delves into the modern scourge of addiction to painkillers. CHAPTER EIGHT: ANOMALIES Describes two curious off-shoots of human pain, masochism and congenital insensitivity to pain. CHAPTER NINE: WITH PAIN IN MIND The mental health aspects of pain and how research in that direction ay change the face of treatment. CHAPTER TEN: THE ROAD AHEAD A survey of some of the more promising treatment options in the fight against pain.