The Complete Guide to Relieving Cancer Pain and Suffering - Softcover

The text adds to the limited resources available to help service users become active partners in decision-making around their treatment and care...[it] will be helpful to people affected by cancer who wish to gain insight into the biomedical perspective on pain and its management. (Journal of Advanced Nursing)

...a well-written and comprehensive handbook for cancer patients and their caregivers...This will be an invaluable resource for people caring for patients with cancer and pain, particularly if they are being managed at home. The information is well set-out and clearly explained, and there is a glossary of medical terms included. (IAHPC Website)

...a much-needed handbook for patients and carers on all aspects of cancer pain...This is a book that I wish had been available several years ago at a time when I was looking for straightforward advice and inspiration. (Palliative Medicine, 19)

They say that turkeys wouldn't vote for Christmas, so it came as a bit of a surprise, as a cancer patient, to be asked by the editor to review a book on cancer pain . . . I cannot imagine a more complete treatment of the subject, written in truly accessible language, and with open discussion of contentious issues. The book is aimed at patients and carers, and I would also strongly recommend it to those who support and advise patients. This is a book that every informed patient and carer should know about, and which should be on the library shelves of every cancer support group. (Annals of Oncology)

Dr. Richard B. Patt, one of America's leading cancer pain experts, teams up with science writer Susan Lang to produce a much-needed, sensible handbook for patients and caregivers on all aspects of cancer pain. The authors illuminate the reasons why patients are so often undermedicated, including unfounded fears of addiction, patients thinking they need to tough it out, time-consuming paperwork for doctors who prescribe narcotics, and laws that fail to distinguish between drug abuse and the legitimate employment of narcotics. Lang and Patt demonstrate that properly medicated patients are better able to resume active lives and marshal strength to fight their disease - while those in chronic pain not only suffer, but also may jeopardise their potential for recovery. A Complete Guide to Relieving Cancer Pain and Suffering enables cancer patients to make informed decisions about their care and gives numerous, concrete suggestions on how patients and their families can work most efficiently and effectively with doctors. This volume will be of enormous value to the growing numbers of patients, family members, and health-care professionals who are determined to relieve needless cancer pain.