While the book does explore the personal experiences of those suffering in pain adeptly, the author and contributors fail to include many sides of this complex issue of the way pain in our society is viewed and why it is so. I would say there is a limited scope at best. The book assumes for instance that addiction is a separate disease when in fact many patients in pain have co existing addiction problems past or present which clouds the issues inherent in prescribing opiates obviously. Further, there is growing acceptance currently for the theory that "disease" is a term applied to addiction too freely, apparently a trend not limited to outside of this book. Also I note a glaring lack of references. I recall seeing similar discourse and material discussed in several separate magazine articles and web blogs unrelated to this author, pre dating the publishing of this book. Not all original premises but certainly a valiant attempt to have an all inclusive resource.