This title is directed primarily towards health care professionals outside of the United States. It deals specifically with the management of potentially chronic pain, how to assess patients with pain, the factors involved in the development of chronic pain and the setting up and running of a pain management programme. The main focus is on musculoskeletal and fibromyalgic type pain. Cancer pain is not addressed. The authors address not only what is recommended in the management of pain but also whether and why it is done, thereby covering not only the content of interdisciplinary pain management but also the processes involved.

Content includes: Models of pain and disability -- Psychological mechanisms -- The psychological impact of pain and disability -- Cultural and social influences on pain and disability -- Risk identification and screening -- Biomedical and pain assessment in secondary and tertiary care settings -- The assessment of pain and function -- Psychological assessment -- The nature of psychosocial interventions -- Intervention models and techniques -- Introduction -- Setting the scene: introduction to the pain management programme -- Medical component of the programme -- Physiotherapy component of the programme -- Psychological component of the programme -- The nature of therapeutic groups -- Maintenance and management of flare-ups -- Conclusions -- Economic and medicolegal influences on pain and disability -- Psychological perspectives on work -- Pain and work: individually focused interventions -- Pain and work: organisational perspectives.