Book excerpt: All health professionals, regardless of specialty, will care for patients with pain that has persisted for more than 6 months. This fully updated fourth edition of 'Fast Facts: Chronic and Cancer Pain', written by two internationally renowned experts in the field, is designed to bring busy health professionals up to speed with the latest information in this area, including: • Easy-to-read overviews of pain mechanisms • A practical approach to pain assessment • Developments in stepped care and multimodal management • The latest thinking on opioids With health services around the world responding to calls to improve the management of painful long-term conditions, develop preventive and cost-effective solutions, and respond to patient choice and voice, this easy-to-read fact-packed book is essential reading for all GPs, nurses, junior hospital doctors, physical therapists, clinical psychologists, occupational therapists, pharmacists, medical specialists and medical students wanting - and needing - to know more. Contents: • Definitions and mechanisms • Assessment of pain • Treatment options • Trigeminal neuralgia • Complex regional pain syndrome • Diabetic and postherpetic neuropathic pain Central pain • Persistent postsurgical pain • Cancer pain • Musculoskeletal pain • Visceral pain • Headache