The Brain and Pain by Richard Ambron

The Brain and Pain
by Richard Ambron

ISBN-13: 9780231204873
Paperback: 216 pages
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Released: March 1st 2022

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description from Goodreads:
Pain is an inevitable part of existence, but severe debilitating or chronic pain is a pathological condition that diminishes the quality of life. The Brain and Pain explores the present and future of pain management, providing a comprehensive understanding based on the latest discoveries from many branches of neuroscience.

Richard Ambron--the former director of a neuroscience lab that conducted leading research in this field--explains the science of how and why we feel pain. He describes how the nervous system and brain process information that leads to the experience of pain, detailing the cellular and molecular functions that are responsible for the initial perceptions of an injury. He discusses how pharmacological agents such as opiates affect the duration and intensity of pain. Ambron examines new evidence showing that discrete circuits in the brain modulate the experience of pain in response to a placebo, fear, anxiety, belief, or other circumstances, as well as how pain can be relieved by activating these circuits using mindfulness training and other nonpharmacological treatments. The book also evaluates the prospects of procedures such as deep brain stimulation and optogenetics.

Current and thorough, The Brain and Pain will be invaluable for a range of people seeking to understand their options for treatment as well as students in neuroscience and medicine.


My Review:
The Brain and Pain explains how the human body senses pain and the parts of the brain involved with suppressing, increasing, or even caring about the pain. The author used scientific language and expected you to remember what each technical term meant so you could understand what he explained later. The target audience seemed to mainly be people who are developing drug interventions (as he explained potential pathways to target), but he did talk about how meditation, placebo, and hypnosis can change how we experience pain. He described in detail how the body senses an injury on your skin, then he talked about visceral pain. He talked about how current drugs work to suppress pain, what we know about chronic pain, and the challenges faced when developing a pain drug. Overall, the book was very informative. I learned some interesting things that anyone can do to help with pain.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.