| Abstract: | ![]()
Behavioral Methods for Chronic Pain and Illness was written by W. E. Fordyce (1976) at a time when psychological contributions to pain were poorly understood, much less the applications of nonpharmacologic methods for addressing this substantial problem. Fordyce's work created a new paradigm for treating pain and other chronic medical problems and spawned operant approaches to chronic pain, in which exercise and adaptive behaviors are reinforced and pain behaviors are extinguished. The quota system for increasing activity, solicitous behavior as reinforcement for chronic pain, and fear of movement as a barrier to patient improvement are all ideas that had their genesis in Fordyce's work. Behavioral Methods will long be remembered as one of the most significant contributions to the field of pain control, behavioral medicine, and rehabilitation psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
