Studies indicate that 40% of Americans use some form of alternative medicine; for individuals with long-term disabilities, learning about their options is even more critical. Written by the former director of the Spinal Cord Research and Education Foundation of the PVA, this is the first book to cover alternative therapies for spinal cord injury. From acupuncture to laser-based therapies, herbal medicine, homeopathy, craniosacral therapy, magnetic healing, and more, the book empowers readers by: Providing clear, reliable information on alternative choices to traditional health care. Equipping readers to make more informed decisions about their own health care. Tailoring information to meet the specific needs of the approximately 450,000 individuals living with a spinal cord injury. Providing healing modalities that minimize the risks that are especially relevant to people with SCI, like overmedication, hospitalization, and life-threatening infections. For those who have been forced to rely on the advice of the traditional medical specialist for their health care, this book opens a broad array of holistic options. It is essential for anyone suffering from a spinal cord injury, their families, friends, caregivers, and health-care providers.

A spinal cord injury (SCI) profoundly changes a person life and can affect nearly all of the body systems. Practitioners managing persons with SCI must treat the medical complications that arise, and be equipped to help their patients return to a productive integrated life within society. Spinal Cord Injury: Rehabilitation Medicine Quick Reference provides the necessary knowledge to help facilitate this process. Addressing over one hundred varied topics related to spinal cord injury, ranging from Treatment of Vocal Fold Paralysis or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders to Intrathecal Pump Management and Paraplegia, this text is a handy reference for the busy practitioner. Presented in a consistent two-page format for maximum clinical utility, the book is organized into three sections. The first covers the medical and psychological conditions associated with spinal cord injury; the second discusses common interventions; while the last outlines expected functional outcomes. Every entry is standardized for quick look-up in the office or clinic, and features description, etiology, risk factors, clinical features, natural history, diagnosis, red flags, treatment, prognosis, helpful hints, and suggested readings.All Rehabilitation Medicine Quick Referencetitles offer: Consistent Approach and Organization: at-a-glance outline format allows readers to find the facts quickly Concise Coverage: of must-know information broken down into easy-to-locate topics Fast Answers to Clinical Questions: diagnostic and management criteria for problems commonly encountered in daily practice Hands-on Practical Guidance: for all types of interventions and therapies Multi-Specialty Perspective: ensures that issues of relevance to all rehabilitation team members are addressed

What have rabbits, t-shirts and tax bills got to do with spinal cord injury? The Very Alternative Guide to Spinal Cord Injury aims to answer these and many other questions in a way which is unique and different to any other book you've ever seen. Out go complicated medical texts and dull as dishwater hospital booklets. Instead, we get something bright, eye-catching, funny and even sarcastic. You really won't find a book on spinal cord injury like it anywhere. Combining first-hand experience, health information and a ground breaking visual approach, this guide has been written from the point of view of those who have been through it. The book breaks conventions by using humour to tackle issues that are never easy to discuss. Aimed at those with a spinal injury it is also written to support family and friends. Medical professionals will also find it is an invaluable tool for communicating issues related to spinal injury.

For individuals who have suffered a spinal cord injury, it is a struggle to know how to assess and cope with such a life-changing event. The coping strategies that a person employs can have an enormous impact on their mental well-being and long-term health. Approach focused coping, in which the individual accepts and seeks to understand their condition, results in a sense of mastery, self-efficacy, and post traumatic growth. Conversely, avoidance focused coping can lead to anxiety, depression, self neglect, and substance abuse problems. Approximately 50% will meet the diagnostic criteria for depression at 6 months post injury. Research shows that those with depression will have a poorer outcome and shorter life-span. Coping effectiveness training (CET) aims to improve skills for assessing stress, teaching a range of coping skills that can be used to tackle stress, and provide an opportunity for interaction with others who have similar experiences of spinal cord injury. CET includes the identification of effective and ineffective responses to stress, especially those that are particularly unhelpful, such as disengagement, general avoidance, long term denial, and the expression of extreme emotion. By encouraging individuals to think critically about their behaviour in response to stressors, CET helps people avoid unproductive ways of coping. Like all TreatmentsThatWork programs, this treatment is evidence-based. In the author's clinical studies, CET has proven to successfully reduce levels of depression and anxiety in individuals with spinal cord injury, and also resulted in changes in negative self-perception and improved self-efficiacy. The intervention consists of seven, 60-75 minute sessions run two a week in small groups of six to nine people. By working in small groups, participants are able to share experience and build a community, reducing the sense of isolation that often results from sever injury. A corresponding workbook provides monitoring forms, homework exercises, and other user-friendly techniques to continue the work outside of therapy. TreatmentsThatWorkTM represents the gold standard of behavioral healthcare interventions! · All programs have been rigorously tested in clinical trials and are backed by years of research · A prestigious scientific advisory board, led by series Editor-In-Chief David H. Barlow, reviews and evaluates each intervention to ensure that it meets the highest standard of evidence so you can be confident that you are using the most effective treatment available to date · Our books are reliable and effective and make it easy for you to provide your clients with the best care available · Our corresponding workbooks contain psychoeducational information, forms and worksheets, and homework assignments to keep clients engaged and motivated · A companion website (www.oup.com/us/ttw) offers downloadable clinical tools and helpful resources · Continuing Education (CE) Credits are now available on select titles in collaboration with PsychoEducational Resources, Inc. (PER)

An estimated 11,000 spinal cord injuries occur each year in the United States and more than 200,000 Americans suffer from maladies associated with spinal cord injury. This includes paralysis, bowel and bladder dysfunction, sexual dysfunction, respiratory impairment, temperature regulation problems, and chronic pain. During the last two decades, longstanding beliefs about the inability of the adult central nervous system to heal itself have been eroded by the flood of new information from research in the neurosciences and related fields. However, there are still no cures and the challenge of restoring function in the wake of spinal cord injuries remains extremely complex. Spinal Cord Injury examines the future directions for research with the goal to accelerate the development of cures for spinal cord injuries. While many of the recommendations are framed within the context of the specific needs articulated by the New York Spinal Cord Injury Research Board, the Institute of Medicine's panel of experts looked very broadly at research priorities relating to future directions for the field in general and make recommendations to strengthen and coordinate the existing infrastructure. Funders at federal and state agencies, academic organizations, pharmaceutical and device companies, and non-profit organizations will all find this book to be an essential resource as they examine their opportunities.

A Doody's Core Title 2012 The thoroughly revised Second Edition of this authoritative reference continues to define the standard of care for the field of spinal cord medicine. Encompassing all of the diseases and disorders that may a!ect the proper functioning of the spinal cord or spinal nerves, this comprehensive volume provides a state of the art review of the principles of care and best practices for restoring function and quality of life to patients with spinal cord injuries. Expert contributors from multiple disciplines cover topics ranging from acute medical and surgical management of specific problems to cutting-edge research, bladder, bowel and sexual dysfunction, neurologic and musculoskeletal issues, advanced rehabilitation techniques and technologies, functional outcomes, and psychosocial care. While comprehensive in scope, Spinal Cord Medicine offers practical guidance for physicians and other health care professionals involved in the management of individuals with SCI, multiple sclerosis, and other spinal cord disorders. The Second Edition has been completely updated to fully reflect current science and practice. Each section has been re-ordered to better present information and the Second Edition brings in many new authors and topics, more diagrams, illustrations, and tables to solidify concepts, and contains 18 entirely new chapters. Spinal Cord Medicine: Principles and Practice, Second Edition, reflects the breadth and depth of this multi-faceted specialty. Involving over 150 authors from more than 20 fields of medicine, it is a trusted reference for anyone who works with spinal cord patients and strives to deliver superior clinical care and improve outcomes.

While driving a motorcycle, neuro-rehab occupational therapist Jaisa Sulit gets into an accident that leaves her with a spinal cord injury and paralysis from the waist down. Struggling to cope with stress, anxiety, depression, chronic pain, and chronic unworthiness, Jaisa discovers the medicines of mindfulness, compassion, emotional energetic work, and shamanism. More than a book about how one learns to walk again, this is a book about the inner journey toward standing in the truth of who we are. Inspiringly honest, this book will leave you believing in the resiliency that comes when we live with meaning.

Physical rehabilitation for walking recovery after spinal cord injury is undergoing a paradigm shift. Therapy historically has focused on compensation for sensorimotor deficits after SCI using wheelchairs and bracing to achieve mobility. With locomotor training, the aim is to promote recovery via activation of the neuromuscular system below the level of the lesion. What basic scientists have shown us as the potential of the nervous system for plasticity, to learn, even after injury is being translated into a rehabilitation strategy by taking advantage of the intrinsic biology of the central nervous system. While spinal cord injury from basic and clinical perspectives was the gateway for developing locomotor training, its application has been extended to other populations with neurologic dysfunction resulting in loss of walking or walking disability.

Handbook of Clinical Neurology: Spinal Cord Injury summarizes advances in the clinical diagnosis, monitoring, prognostication, treatment, and management of spinal cord injuries. More specifically, it looks at new and important developments in areas such as high-resolution noninvasive neuroimaging, surgery, and electrical stimulation of motor, respiratory, bladder, bowel, and sexual functions. It also reviews the latest insights into spontaneous regeneration and recovery of function following rehabilitation, with emphasis on novel therapeutic strategies, such as gene therapy, transcranial stimulation, brain-machine interfaces, pharmacological approaches, molecular target discovery, and the use of olfactory ensheathing cells, stem cells, and precursor cells. Organized in five sections, the book begins with an overview of the development, maturation, biomechanics, and anatomy of the spinal cord before proceeding with a discussion of clinical diagnosis and prognosis as well as natural recovery, ambulation, and function following spinal cord injury. It then examines clinical neurophysiology in the prognosis and monitoring of traumatic spinal cord injury; medical, surgical and rehabilitative management of spinal cord trauma; and some new approaches for improving recovery in patients, including restoration of function by electrical stimulation, locomotor training, and the use of robotics. Other chapters cover cell transplantation, artificial scaffolds, experimental pharmacological interventions, and molecular and combinatorial strategies for repairing the injured spinal cord. This volume should be of interest to neuroscience and clinical neurology research specialists and practicing neurologists. - Comprehensive coverage of the latest scientific understanding of spinal cord injuries - Detailed coverage of current treatment best practices and potential future treatments - Connects leading edge research programs to future treatment opportunities