A fascinating, realistic study of pain management and addiction that offers hope to patients and their families.
A physiatrist and pain management specialist analyzes the intricacies of addiction and pain.
In his pain management business, Dr. Oh is vigilant about watching for red flags—signs that a patient may be abusing or becoming addicted to a prescribed medication. He begins his analysis of drug dependence by discussing 10 myths and misconceptions about addiction, citing the misleading and oft-depicted image of an addict in movies or TV, as if the person who is high always “looks inebriated, intoxicated, and half falling asleep.” Oh explains that for most people, the effect of opiates is sedation, though addicts described their initial reactions as “stimulating and energizing.” Oh downplays the idea of an “addictive personality,” feeling that it unfairly blames the victim. “The only thing that predicts whether a person is susceptible to a drug or not is one’s genetics,” he says. “The only way you will know whether you are susceptible to a drug is by the way the drug makes you feel.” Oh explains that it is that initial euphoria that the addict chases—losing jobs, forsaking health, friends and family on the way. Though doctors are aware of the possibility that their patients will become addicted to their pain medications, Oh believes that many doctors choose not to see the signs of addiction. “For most physicians...it is easier to give into the patient’s demand and give him what he wants rather than trying to delve too deep underneath the surface.” The author does a fine job explaining the complex aspects of how the chemistry of the brain is affected by various drugs, including a description of the five known opiate receptors in the brain and the three classes of opiate pain medication. He illustrates his narrative with 20 case studies and synopses of cases of addicts whom Oh treated for pain management, some with positive outcomes, some with negative results. Also included is a helpful glossary as well as information on addiction, which Oh regularly hands out to his own patients.
A fascinating, realistic study of pain management and addiction that offers hope to patients and their families.Pub Date: June 20, 2014
ISBN: 978-1497446083
Page Count: 304
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The Stoics did much better with the much shorter Enchiridion.
A follow-on to the author’s garbled but popular 48 Laws of Power, promising that readers will learn how to win friends and influence people, to say nothing of outfoxing all those “toxic types” out in the world.
Greene (Mastery, 2012, etc.) begins with a big sell, averring that his book “is designed to immerse you in all aspects of human behavior and illuminate its root causes.” To gauge by this fat compendium, human behavior is mostly rotten, a presumption that fits with the author’s neo-Machiavellian program of self-validation and eventual strategic supremacy. The author works to formula: First, state a “law,” such as “confront your dark side” or “know your limits,” the latter of which seems pale compared to the Delphic oracle’s “nothing in excess.” Next, elaborate on that law with what might seem to be as plain as day: “Losing contact with reality, we make irrational decisions. That is why our success often does not last.” One imagines there might be other reasons for the evanescence of glory, but there you go. Finally, spin out a long tutelary yarn, seemingly the longer the better, to shore up the truism—in this case, the cometary rise and fall of one-time Disney CEO Michael Eisner, with the warning, “his fate could easily be yours, albeit most likely on a smaller scale,” which ranks right up there with the fortuneteller’s “I sense that someone you know has died" in orders of probability. It’s enough to inspire a new law: Beware of those who spend too much time telling you what you already know, even when it’s dressed up in fresh-sounding terms. “Continually mix the visceral with the analytic” is the language of a consultant’s report, more important-sounding than “go with your gut but use your head, too.”
The Stoics did much better with the much shorter Enchiridion.Pub Date: Oct. 23, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-525-42814-5
Page Count: 580
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Readers unfamiliar with the anecdotal material Greene presents may find interesting avenues to pursue, but they should...
Greene (The 33 Strategies of War, 2007, etc.) believes that genius can be learned if we pay attention and reject social conformity.
The author suggests that our emergence as a species with stereoscopic, frontal vision and sophisticated hand-eye coordination gave us an advantage over earlier humans and primates because it allowed us to contemplate a situation and ponder alternatives for action. This, along with the advantages conferred by mirror neurons, which allow us to intuit what others may be thinking, contributed to our ability to learn, pass on inventions to future generations and improve our problem-solving ability. Throughout most of human history, we were hunter-gatherers, and our brains are engineered accordingly. The author has a jaundiced view of our modern technological society, which, he writes, encourages quick, rash judgments. We fail to spend the time needed to develop thorough mastery of a subject. Greene writes that every human is “born unique,” with specific potential that we can develop if we listen to our inner voice. He offers many interesting but tendentious examples to illustrate his theory, including Einstein, Darwin, Mozart and Temple Grandin. In the case of Darwin, Greene ignores the formative intellectual influences that shaped his thought, including the discovery of geological evolution with which he was familiar before his famous voyage. The author uses Grandin's struggle to overcome autistic social handicaps as a model for the necessity for everyone to create a deceptive social mask.
Readers unfamiliar with the anecdotal material Greene presents may find interesting avenues to pursue, but they should beware of the author's quirky, sometimes misleading brush-stroke characterizations.Pub Date: Nov. 13, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-670-02496-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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