Twelve Steps For Those Afflicted With Chronic Pain: A Guide To Recovery From Emotional And Spiritual Suffering

This book has been condensed and updated as part of Dr. Colameco's NEW BOOK-- CHRONIC PAIN: A WAY OUT (2012) The 12-Steps presented in 12-Steps for those Afflicted with Chronic Pain are intended to help individuals recover from the emotional suffering that so often accompanies chronic pain.

Dr. Colameco attended Temple University School of Medicine where he was a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honors Society and a winner of an Emmanual Weinberg Award for excellence in internal medicine. He completed three years of residency training in family practice at Hahnemann University Hospital where he served as Chief Resident and was one of twelve national recipients of a Meade Johnson Prize for family practice training. After his residency, he completed a faculty development fellowship at Temple University School of Medicine; during his fellowship, he concentrated clinical studies in addiction medicine.Dr. Colameco served as a medical director for a drug and alcohol treatment program from 1983-1985, and has included addiction medicine in his practice ever since. He was certified by the American Society of Addiction Medicine in 1987 and re-certified in 1998. Since many patients with addiction also suffer from chronic pain, and since many patients with chronic pain suffer adverse consequences of treatment with narcotics, Dr. Colameco has also maintained an active pain management practice; he treats chronic pain patients who have failed traditional treatments and who suffer from emotional distress. Dr. Colameco has served on the Board of Trustees of the West Jersey Health System, Amity House (a halfway house in Mount Holly), and Starting Point (a counseling center in Westmont). He has served as an advisor to government and nonprofit groups seeking to improve services for patients with addiction, chronic pain and other forms of emotional suffering. He is a founding member of the International Association for Pain and Chemical Dependency and member of the National Faculty for the Core Content Review of Family Practice.Dr. Colameco served as director of the Family Practice Residency Program at Underwood-Memorial Hospital from 1998 until he resigned this position in 2004 to pursue full-time private practice; he holds clinical privileges in addiction medicine and non-interventional pain management at Underwood-Memorial Hospital. He has lectured at meetings of the Pennsylvania Academy of Family Physicians, the New Jersey Academy of Family Physicians, the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine, and other organizations. Dr. Colameco has held academic appointments at area medical schools, and is currently an assistant clinical professor at Thomas Jefferson University. Dr. Colameco takes a comprehensive care approach to addiction medicine. He believes the best medicine combines scientifically-proven methods of treatment and attention to individual patient needs. For this reason, Dr. Colameco limits his practice to about 300 clients, and each has access to Dr. Colameco via email and mobile phone.