Pain: A textbook for health professionals provides a comprehensive guide to pain and pain management with a focus on interprofessional practice.

Written by internationally acclaimed authors and fully updated to reflect latest evidence and understanding, this book bridges the gap between theoretical underpinning and practice for assessment and management of patients with persistent pain all in clear and accessible language.

Now in its third edition, the text emphasises personal aspects of pain and the therapeutic alliance, as well as social and cultural aspects of pain, pain education for patients, and multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary working. It will provide both students and clinicians with a new lens through which to understand a person's pain experience, as well as tools for effective management.


Comprehensive information about all aspects of pain and pain management
Relevant to a wide audience suitable for physiotherapists, occupational therapists, social workers, nurses and GPs, as well as undergraduate students
Factual and informative for clinicians in everyday practice
Includes information on acute as well as chronic pain
New chapters on communication, the language of pain, pain education for patients, multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary working, and inequities in pain including pain in low- and middle-income countries and amongst indigenous peoples
Updated chapters with new information about the psychology of pain
Now with full colour artworks and page design


1. Introduction to pain
2. The patient's voice
3. Developing your communication toolkit: a practical guide for healthcare professionals
4. Social determinants of pain
5. The psychology of pain: implications for the assessment and management of people in pain
6. Neuroanatomy of the nociceptive system
7. Neurophysiology of pain
8. Assessing pain
9. Pain education for patients
10. Participating in life roles through self-management
11. Exercise therapy
12. Psychological management of pain
13. Neuropathic pain and complex regional pain syndrome
14. Manual therapy and influence on pain perception
15. Pain pharmacology and the pharmacological management of pain
16. Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation and acupuncture
17. Workplace rehabilitation
18. Multidisciplinary and interprofessional working
19. Pain in childhood
20. Pain in older adults
21. Cancer pain
22. Inequities in pain: pain in low- and middle-income countries and among indigenous peoples
23. Chronic pain and psychiatric problems
24. Acute pain
25. Persistent pain and the law: legal aspects of persistent pain management
26. Conclusions: the future
Index