This book is designed to focus on the role of Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide (CGRP) in health and disease. This peptide, originally discovered in the 1980s as a sensory neuropeptide with cardiovascular effects, is now known to play a distinct role in the pain processing of migraine. The various chapters address the origin, localization and function of CGRP and its receptor in the peripheral nervous system, in the cardiovascular system, and in other tissues and organs. Further attention is paid to the drug discovery pathway where recent findings show the beneficial effect of small molecule antagonists of the CGRP receptors for the relief of the migraine attack and of monoclonal antibodies against CGRP or the CGRP receptor for migraine prevention.

This book explores pain in a number of ways. At the heart of the book is an extension of Melzack's neuromatrix theory of pain into the social, cultural, and economic fields. Specific assemblages involving varied institutions, flows of capital, encounters, and social and economic structures provide a framework for the formation of pain, its perception, experience, meaning, and cultural production. Complementing the extended neuromatrix is a second theory, focussed on the propensity of western market capitalism to seek out new areas of life to subsume to capital. Pain is one such life area that is now ripe for exploitation. Although the book has theory at its heart, it draws extensively on case studies to identify the contradictions and complexities. Case studies are drawn from accounts of drug use in varied contexts such as prescription drugs, methamphetamine use, oxycodone use in North America, and the global rise of the medicinal cannabis marketplace.

It has never been easy to introduce new concepts and therapeutic in-terventions into surgical practice. When attempting to do so, one is faced with the interagency of traditional dogma, which still in this era of evidence-based medicine tends to dominate the surgical thought pr- ess. This is particularly so in the area of coloproctology, where prejudice and personal opinion often influence objective analysis whenever tradition is challenged. A large body of literature on anorectal prolapse has accumulated over the years; although much is based on personal viewpoint rather than scientific evidence, it has nevertheless been passed down through the generations as ac-cepted wisdom and practice. As a consequence, it is a challenge to change the mindset of a generation of surgeons and to introduce new concepts and novel techniques which at first might appear to be a radical departure from conventional teaching. It is obviously not possible to present the basis for the develop-ment of transanal stapling techniques for anorectal prolapse in this Foreword; this is dealt with in detail elsewhere in this book. The in-terested reader will have the opportunity to share in the new and emerging concepts surrounding anorectal prolapse and to deepen their understanding of the pat- physiology and basis for surgical correction. Although hemorrhoidal disease and external rectal prolapse have been known about for centuries, the understanding of internal rectal prolapse (intussusception) and rectocele has only really advanced with the emergence of radiological imaging tech-niques, such as defecography.

The book takes an integrated approach to pain rehabilitation and combines pain science, rehabilitation and yoga with evidence-based approaches from respected contributors. They demonstrate how to integrate the concepts, philosophies and practices of yoga and pain science in working with people in pain. An essential and often overlooked part of pain rehabilitation is listening to, working with, learning from, and validating the person in pain's lived experience. The book expounds on the movement to a more patient-valued, partnership-based biopsychosocial-spiritual model of healthcare where the patient is an active and empowered participant, as opposed to a model where the healthcare provider is 'fixing' the passive patient. It also explains how practitioners can address the entire human being in pain, and how to include the person as an expert for more effective and self-empowered care.

This groundbreaking analysis moves our knowledge of pain and its effects from the biomedical model to one accounting for its complex psychosocial dimensions. Starting with its facial and physical display, pain is shown in its manifold social contexts-in the lifespan, in a family unit, expressed by a member of a gender and/or race-and as observed by others. These observations by caregivers and family are shown as vital to the social dynamic of pain-as observers react to sufferers' pain, and as these reactions affect those suffering. The book's findings should enhance practitioners' understanding of pain to develop more effective individualized treatments for clients' pain experience, and inspire researchers as well. Among the topics covered: Why do we care? Evolutionary mechanisms in the social dimension of pain. When, how, and why do we express pain? On the overlap between physical and social pain. Facing others in pain: why context matters. Caregiving impact upon sufferers' cognitive functioning. Targeting individual and interpersonal processes in therapeutic interventions for chronic pain. Social and Interpersonal Dynamics in Pain will be a valuable resource for clinicians who deal in pain practice and management, as well as for students and researchers interested in the social, interpersonal, and emotional variables that contribute to pain, the processes with which pain is associated, and the psychology of pain in general.