Here at Resolving Chronic Pain I have some very exciting news to share: the textbook on chronic pain which I have been working on for several years has finally been published!
Entitled Psychophysiologic Disorders: Trauma Informed, Interprofessional Diagnosis and Treatment, the book is a collection of chapters written by experts in the field and edited by David Clarke, Howard Schubiner, myself, and Allan Abbass.
Sixteen practitioners, experts and patients contributed to eighteen chapters to create both an inspiring blueprint for existing health practitioners and a roadmap for medical students about to embark on their careers.
Psychophysiologic Disorders (PPD) is a term used to describe chronic or unexplained pain for which stress is the root cause, also sometimes known as ‘Stress Illness’. Part One of the book describes the condition and its history from ancient times up to recent medical scholarship. Part Two is a collection of essays from medical practitioners writing about the integration of PPD into their professional practice.
My involvement in the book has been hugely challenging and exciting in equal parts, both as an editor with input into the curation of the text as a whole, and as an author contributing to a chapter on the history of PPD and another wholly devoted to Resolving Chronic Pain.
Other chapters in Part Two focus on topics including diagnosis and treatment in Primary Care, the psychology of pain, stress illness recovery and expressive writing. Contributors from five different countries each bring a unique perspective to the book from their own particular field. From a neuroscientist to a gastroenterologist to a psychiatrist to an orthopaedic spine surgeon, the authors reached a consensus on a core set of principles and applied them to their own experience.
The idea for the book was conceived in April 2015, germinating from the seed of Dr John Sarno’s work in the 1980s-2000s. The initial idea was followed by many exchanges between myself and the other editors – tentative in the beginning, and then more and more assured and rewarding as the book evolved. David Clarke in particular has been a privilege and an inspiration to work closely with. I think we both agree there is enough fascinating history of this condition to fill an entire book, and deciding what to include or leave out was a real challenge at times.
It is now available to purchase online from Amazon, by following this link in the UK, and this link in the US. All proceeds will go to the Psychophysiologic Disorders Association, a non-profit dedicated to research into the diagnosis and treatment of stress illness.