Cognitive Therapy for Chronic Pain: A Step-by-Step Guide [Paperback]

Beverly E. Thorn Phd (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1572309792 | ISBN-13: 978-1572309791 | Publication Date: August 31, 2004 | Edition: 1

Grounded in state-of-the-art theory and research, this hands-on volume provides a complete cognitive-behavioral treatment program for clients suffering from chronic pain. Ten clearly organized modules for use with groups or individuals offer well-tested strategies for engaging clients, challenging distorted thoughts and beliefs about pain, and helping to build needed skills for coping and adaptation. Also featured are a detailed theoretical and empirical rationale, along with guidelines for setting up treatment groups and conducting effective assessments. Presented in a large-size format for ease of photocopying and use, the book contains everything needed to implement the program, including numerous case examples and troubleshooting tips and over 40 reproducible session outlines, client handouts, and assessment tools.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This is a detailed guide for blending cognitive treatment components into a comprehensive management program for chronic pain. It is broad in scope and detailed in analysis, with many summarizing components to enhance reader absorption. The relevant cognitive concepts, their evidence-based roots, and how they can be applied are included. Any clinician training for or practicing in the pain management field will find this book a marvel of systematic and comprehensive study."--Wilbert E. Fordyce, PhD, Department of Rehabilitation Medicine (Emeritus), University of Washington School of Medicine

"Managing the subjective nature of the pain experience is challenging for practitioners and patients alike. A cognitive conceptualization can identify the idiosyncratic beliefs, appraisals, and thoughts that contribute to the suffering experienced by so many with chronic pain. Thorn has provided an excellent, evidence-based approach to cognitive therapy with patients with chronic pain. She concisely summarizes the psychosocial literature and provides a clear treatment protocol. This is an invaluable resource for the psychology graduate student or practicing pain psychologist."--Andrew Bertagnolli, PhD, Chronic Pain Care Management Program, Kaiser Permanente-Northern California Region

"[Thorn] beautifully weaves together relevant research with her extensive clinical experience to provide a practical and useful description of a cognitive approach to the treatment of chronic pain sufferers....Following one group of patients throughout the treatment serves as a useful means of demonstrating the connections among the sessions and the incremental process incorporated. This wonderful volume by a master clinician offers important insights coupled with a 'how-to-do-it' format. It will be an indispensable resource for those with experience in treating chronic pain patients as well as those who are new to treating this difficult population."--from the Foreword by Dennis C. Turk, PhD, Department of Anesthesiology, University of Washington Medical School


"In an authoritative yet relaxed and accessible manner, Beverly Thorn presents an elegant masterpiece of manualized cognitive intervention. The book sets forth an impressively comprehensive, step-by-step approach for addressing the errors in thinking that often accompany chronic pain. It is practical, evidence-based, and appropriately rooted in theory, and includes a wealth of therapeutic dialogues, useful handouts, and troubleshooting tips based on the author’s extensive clinical experience. While appropriate for use in one-on-one sessions, it is the group-based format that makes Dr. Thorn's approach to therapy particularly appealing. This book should be required reading for all mental health professionals who are serious about helping people with chronic pain."--Gordon J. G. Asmundson, PhD, Anxiety and Illness Behaviours Laboratory, Department of Kinesiology and Health Studies, University of Regina, Canada

"This book offers the most systematic description I have seen of cognitive therapy methods for pain management. It should be on the shelf of anyone who is interested in the practical aspects of conducting cognitive therapy with persons experiencing persistent pain. The session outlines and worksheets will be quite helpful to practicing clinicians. The book also will serve as an ideal text for students learning to apply cognitive therapy methods to medical populations. I recommend this book enthusiastically."--Francis J. Keefe, PhD, Department of Psychology, Duke University Medical Center

About the Author

Beverly E. Thorn, PhD, is Professor of Psychology and Director of the PhD program in Clinical Psychology at the University of Alabama, where she has been on the faculty since 1986. She received her PhD in bioclinical psychology from Southern Illinois University in 1980, satisfying the degree requirements for a doctorate in clinical psychology as well as physiological psychology. Dr. Thorn’s research has included the investigation of descending pain-inhibitory systems in the brain using traditional behavioral neuroscience techniques, as well as psychological assessment and treatment outcome research in the area of pain management. Most recently, she has been involved in research investigating the important components of cognitive-behavioral treatment for chronic painful conditions, and, specifically, assessing and restructuring maladaptive cognitions associated with painful states. Dr. Thorn has held research grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse and Roche Laboratories, and is presently funded by the National Institute on Neurological Disorders and Stroke. She is a Fellow of the Society of Behavioral Medicine and of the Division of Health Psychology of the American Psychological Association.

Product Details

• Paperback: 278 pages
• Publisher: The Guilford Press; 1 edition (August 31, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1572309792
• ISBN-13: 978-1572309791
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #228,258 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #32 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Disorders & Diseases > Chronic Pain
  • #69 in Books > Medical Books > Pharmacology > Pain Medicine

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

68 of 70 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A helpful book for both patients and professionals, May 26, 2005

By 

Daniel Bruns "Health Psychologist" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cognitive Therapy for Chronic Pain: A Step-by-Step Guide (Paperback)

"You'll just have to learn to live with it." That's what many patients hear when there is nothing else that can be medically done to alleviate their pain. But how is a patient supposed to learn to "live with it?" Where this statement leaves off, Dr. Thorn's book begins. Dr. Thorn's book illustrates how a therapist can help patients with pain to better cope with their suffering, and to go on to live fulfilling lives. This book is aptly named, for it truly does take the reader on a step-by-step journey through the therapeutic process.

Cognitive Therapy for Chronic Pain is not a comprehensive chronic pain workbook, nor was it intended to be. It does not cover such issues as medications for pain, nor does it cover breathing techniques for pain or insomnia control. Rather, it takes one critically important aspect of pain disorders, how patients come to think about their pain, and deals with the therapeutic process more thoroughly than any other book currently available.

Cognitive Therapy for Chronic Pain book is a monumental work on the topic of how pain and suffering are influenced, for better or for worse, by a patient's belief system. Beyond this, this book does an extraordinary job of taking current scientific theory and research about the nature of pain, and distilling from that concrete advice for both clinicians and their patients. This book leaves the reader with the awareness that Dr. Thorn is a master at simplifying complex ideas, and explaining them in a way that even a discouraged patient can understand and benefit from.

Unlike some books, which are scientifically sound but which offer little that is clinically usable, Dr. Thorn's book is eminently practical. Cognitive Therapy for Chronic Pain walks the reader through the types of the beliefs that influence pain, how to assess them, therapeutic strategies, and homework assignment for the patients. This book even takes the additional step of identifying aspects of these assignments that patients are likely to have difficulty with, and strategies for helping patients overcome these difficulties.

Cognitive Therapy for Chronic Pain is organized with sections on theoretical matters, assessment devices with their scoring keys, and therapeutic strategies with actual homework forms. Additionally, there are also sample dialogs illustrating how to present this information, and how the patient might respond.

Dr. Thorn's approach is at the same time sympathetic to the plight of patients with pain, while still offering hope. While never judgmental, she still challenges patients to identify ineffective coping strategies, and to learn better ones. Most health psychologists will have a chronic pain workbook on their shelf. Cognitive Therapy for Chronic Pain is the next step beyond such a workbook, and will be an indispensable addition to even a senior pain professional's library.

Although this book is written as a guide for clinicians who treat pain, this book can also be a useful self-help guide for a motivated patient with pain.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic book, December 15, 2011

By 

the author - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Cognitive Therapy for Chronic Pain: A Step-by-Step Guide (Paperback)

This is the best pain therapy book I've come across. Designed for group therapy, it can be used by individuals. This book is suitable for professionals and for those with minimal understanding of Cognitive Therapy.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Tough love for chronic pain?, March 17, 2011

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Book Junkie (California) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Cognitive Therapy for Chronic Pain: A Step-by-Step Guide (Paperback)

As a Marriage and Family Therapist who works with cognitive therapy and also suffers from chronic pain, I felt very sad reading this book. Dr. Thorn states that the belief "Medication--belief that medications in general are appropriate for chronic pain problems" is associated with poorer adjustment. Would she then make the statement, "Medication--belief that medications in general are appropriate for depression" is associate with poorer adjusment? If SSRIs are standard treatment for depression, ACE-inhibitors standard treatment for hypertension, and statins standard treament for high cholesterol, then why are pain medications considered problematic for the treatment of chronic pain? This type of thinking is very hypocritical and deprives chronic pain sufferers of available pain relief, along with causing them a great deal of guilt.

Although I agree with the effectiveness of Dr. Thorn's writing exercise and positive coping self-statements, I disagree that talking about one's pain with others is a negative coping skill. Pain is part of the human condition. Pretending one is not in pain is deceptive and dishonest. Although patients need to choose carefully with whom they share their pain stories, others may in fact learn to develop greater empathy by hearing these stories. In addition, the patient suffering pain may be able to provide support and empathy to other people experiencing pain and become more empathic. Some relationships become closer from this deep sharing.

I believe that a more well-rounded approach to treating chronic pain (including select aspects of cognitive behavioral therapy, marital or family therapy, art or music therapy, and some psychodynamic therapy) provides a more compassionate, comprehensive approach to treating patients with chronic pain.