Pain as a chief presenting complaint is the second most common reason for primary care visits.  Pain accounts for one fourth of all sick time lost from work, or 50 million lost workdays per year (Brownlee and Schrof 1997). Almost 26 million people in the United States suffer from severe pain at least monthly. Despite the prevalence and enormous economic impact of pain, undertreatment  is just as widespread. Fewer than half (43%) of Americans with moderate or severe pain feel that they “have a great deal of control” over their pain and 28% “don’t believe that there is any real solution” for their pain (Pain in America 1997). Our understanding about pain mechanisms and treatments is evolving faster than any other field  of medicine. New drugs, drug combinations, and new uses of older drugs leave many providers  wondering how to keep up with the knowledge. Reports appear almost daily of new discoveries about gene expression, drugs, infectious disease, the human genome, and pathophysiology. New interventional procedures require dedicated professionals just to keep up with the field. This book is a comprehensive guide for nurses to help with pain assessment and treatment. The author is a nurse with broad experience in pain management and she is a leader in the field. Her background lends itself to the problems encountered by nurses in dealing with patients in pain.  The information is practical and useful, and contains enough theoretical background to make  the knowledge understandable.