The Complete Guide to Relieving Cancer Pain and Suffering

Cancer pain experts assert that the careful application of contemporary techniques can bring relief to an astounding 90 to 99 percent of cancer patients, yet unnecessary, often agonizing pain continues to be under-treated.

Here, Dr. Richard B. Patt and Susan Lang have collaborated to produce an essential handbook for patients, their caregivers, family and friends. Thoroughly revising their widely-praised 1994 book, You Don't Have to Suffer, the authors illuminate the reasons patients are so often under-medicated--including the need to tough it out, time-consuming paperwork for doctors who prescribe drugs, and exaggerated concerns about laws that fail to distinguish between the abuse of drugs and their legitimate use. Patt and Lang demonstrate that when patients are properly medicated they are better able to resume active lives and marshal the courage and strength needed to keep fighting--while those in chronic pain are not only demoralized by suffering, but also jeopardize their potential for recovery. This book helps patients and their families cope with the practical problems of cancer pain and suffering. It describes the full spectrum of today's--and tomorrow's--pain-relieving arsenal--starting with tips on communicating with doctors through a better understanding of drug therapies, high-tech medical procedures and psychological, cognitive, and "mind-body" techniques that can help raise patients' spirits. The authors discuss depression and anxiety, as well as physical symptoms like hunger, nausea and weakness.

This volume will enable people with cancer to make informed decisions about all aspects of their care and will be of enormous value to the growing number of patients, family members, and health-care professionals determined to relieve the needless suffering of cancer.

Richard B. Patt, M.D. directs the medical care of all inpatients at the world-renowned Hospice at the Texas Medical Center and is President and Chief Medical Officer of the Patt Center for Cancer Pain and Wellness (www.cancerpain.org) in Houston. He served as the Deputy Chief of the Pain and Symptom Management Section of the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and was the founder of the Cancer Pain Program at the University of Rochester School of Medicine. Susan S. Lang has been a senior science writer at Cornell University for almost twenty years and is the author or co-author of eleven books, including Headache Help. She has written hundreds of articles on psychology, health, medicine, and veterinary science for national publications. Their unique collaboration is aimed to help remedy the needless and dehumanizing suffering that our aging population, their care providers and doctors face as we approach one of modern medicine's most important crossroads.