Medication Management of Chronic Pain: What You Need to Know

About the Book

This book is meant to meet the needs of people with chronic pain, their families and significant others who need to understand important facts and concepts about pharmacological (medication) management of chronic pain. Its orientation is to provide the reader with practical and clinically useful information in a format that will allow rapid processing of the information to assist in rational decision making. The book is not meant to be a comprehensive research compendium, nor does it emphasize basic science research so important as a precursor to clinical drug trials. Good pain management requires a partnership between you, the patient, and your treating physician. Therefore, my hope is that many physicians and other healthcare providers will benefit from reading this book. It is essential that you know as many facts as possible that are likely to shape your physician’s decision making. Therefore, I wrote this book as a sequel to The Handbook on the Pharmacological Management of Chronic Pain written for physicians and other pain clinicians to assist them in their decision making. I wrote the book at a level that may be somewhat difficult for some non health care providers because of a vocabulary that often may be more technical than your usual reading. None the less, because some of you may have difficult chronic pain problems or have family members or friends with such problems I chose to cover each topic in a thorough rather than cursory fashion. Whenever possible, I discussed or defined medically technical terms to assist you.

About the Author

Dr. Aronoff served as chairman in the Department of Pain Medicine at Presbyterian and Presbyterian Orthopedic Hospitals in Charlotte, North Carolina, from 2002 to 2005. He is currently the medical director of Carolina Pain Associates, PA, and his treatment emphasizes a multidisciplinary approach to pain management. Prior to relocating from Boston, he had been medical director of the Boston Pain Center at the Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital for more than 10 years. Dr. Aronoff is the past president of the American Academy of Pain Medicine, the New England Pain Association, the Eastern Pain Association, and the North Carolina Pain Society. He was the pain consultant to the FDA Arthritis Advisory Committee from 1988 to 1992. Dr. Aronoff has sat on three National Advisory Committees for Pain and served on the Board of Advisors of the National Pain Foundation. He was the pain consultant to the Federation of State Medical Boards in 1997 and 1998 and assisted in developing the 1998 Model Guidelines for the Use of Controlled Substances for the Treatment of Pain. In 2008, he was a pain consultant to the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM) and assisted in developing the Guidelines for the Evaluation and Treatment of Chronic Pain in patients with occupational injuries. In 2016, he continues in his capacity as consultant to ACOEM in updating these guidelines. In 2005, Dr. Aronoff received the German Pain Award for his contributions to the field of pain medicine. Dr. Aronoff is the author/editor of 7 books, multiple text chapters, and more than 100 scientific articles on chronic pain. He is the founding editor in chief of the Clinical Journal of Pain. Dr. Aronoff received his medical degree from the New Jersey College of Medicine, did his residency at the Harvard Medical School’s McLean Hospital, and had his fellowship training at the Boston University Medical Center. Until relocating from Boston, Dr. Aronoff held the academic position of assistant clinical professor at Tufts Medical School. From 2005 to 2009, he was an adjunct associate professor at Duke University Medical Center, Department of Psychiatry, Pain Evaluation and Treatment Service.