Pain is a protective biological mechanism experienced by all people, an indication that damage has or may have occurred to tissues and nerves which fluctuates based on the severity of damage (Raja, Hoot & Dougherty, 2011, p. 1; Lynch, Craig & Peng, 2011. p. 3). It is an unpleasant, subjective experience both emotionally and sensory that varies for every person. There are many factors that can increase the perception of pain experienced including emotional, social, spiritual and functional circumstances (Lynch, Craif & Peng, 2011, p.3). According to Dr John Keltner, pain therapist (as cited in Schleifer, 2014, p.36) there is myriad brain states relating to pain and pain is a diverse, varied experience and new aspects are constantly being discovered. Generally, two types of pathophysiological pain are recognised; nociceptive and neuropathic.
Nociceptive pain is the pain experienced when the body is damaged by temperature, chemical, or mechanical means. When damage is caused, afferent neurons respond and the four phases of nociception result. Transduction occurs when the free ends of silent nociceptors convert toxic experience into an electrical current, leading to a nerve impulse. The nerve impulse is then transmitted to the dorsal root ganglion in the spinal cord, then the dorsal
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It can be spontaneous and without any obvious stimulant (such as damage), a heightened response to a stimulus (known as hyperalgesia) or can result from stimulation that does not typically cause pain (such as touch), called allodynia. (Bennett, 2010, p 10). Neuropathic pain can arise secondary to diseases such as diabetes, alcoholism, renal failure, HIV, cancer and cancer treatments, chronic inflammation and herpes zoster among others (Jay, 2014, p
Neuropathic pain is the result of injury. “Neuropathic pain can occur as the result of such conditions as shingles, cancer, phantom limb pain, the phenomenon known as entrapment neuropath” (The Gazette). People with pain go see a doctor and they get subscribe to pain killers. However Pain killers can be very dangerous. For instance on can get addicted to pain killers by taking them for a long period of time. Using pain killers can be damage to your system and by the time you don’t need them anymore the body will still want them.
The other kind of pain is neuropathic, and it affects the nerves. Dr. Day says this is a condition called Complex Regional Pain Syndrome or CRPS. It happens when an injury or illness leaves the nervous system with a malfunction. Many patients describe it as a
Hyperalgesia from peripheral inflammation may occur due to alterations to inhibitory mechanisms. Chronic pain conditions (such as temporomandibular disorders) can result in a decrease in central inhibitory control mechanisms, which results in an increased central excitatory state causing hyperalgesia.
Many people suffer from chronic widespread pain within their body. Physical pain can be described as unpleasant sensory experiences provoked by real or perceived tissue damage. The perception of pain and nociception can be induced at pressures and temperatures that are tremendous enough to cause some sort of injury or damage. Pain can also be portrayed as a variety of sensations such as lancinating, stabbing, pricking, burning, throbbing, cramping, and aching. Noxious stimuli are detected by specialized neurons called nociceptors. After repeated incidence of injury, nociceptors can be sensitized leading to allodynia and/or hyperalgesia. Allodynia is the perception of pain from normally harmless stimuli. Hyperalgesia is an increase
The direct pathway model shows that pain is caused when the brain receives a signal from stimulation of the nociceptors in the skin (Goldstein, 2010). However, this is not the only way to experience pain. The phenomenon named the Phantom Limb gives an example of this. Phantom limb occurs in people that are missing one or more of their limbs; these amputees still experience the limb, even though it is not attached to the body. When people experience phantom limb, they often scratch at the missing limb or try walking on the limb that is not there. Amputees often swing the limb with their body movements even though the limb is not there. Amputees often experience pain, or a burning sensation or sharp stinging sensations. The phantom limb experience is in direct confrontation with the direct pathway model; however, the phantom can be better explained by another model; the gateway
Specific receptors are stimulated for us to feel this type of pain. These receptors sense changes in temperature, vibration, stretch, and chemicals which damaged cells release. "Nociceptive" means causing or reacting to pain - the cause of the pain comes from outside the nervous system, and the nervous system reacts to it. "Non-nociceptive" means the pain comes from within the nervous system itself.
First, pain is a sensory experience resulting from perception of action potentials in nervous system. Pain can be observed in varying strengths and forms based on factors such as past experience, stress, and anxiety. The endogenous pain system can enhance or inhibit the perception of pain based on these factors. Nociceptors are sensory receptors responsible for detecting unpleasant stimuli, and relaying that information to the central nervous system. These receptors are split into two sub groups: Aδ-fibers and C-fibers. Aδ-fibers are thinly myelinated, and have a small diameter. These fibers respond to light stimuli by having a low activation requirement and a rapid signal conduction. C-fibers are unmyelinated, with a slow conduction. These
Somatic pain is caused by the activation of nociceptors in either surface tissues (skin, mucosa of mouth, nose, urethra, anus, etc.) or deep tissues such as bone, joint, muscle or connective tissue. For example, cuts and sprains causing tissue disruption produce surface somatic pain while muscle cramps due to poor oxygen supply produce deep somatic
Neuropathic pain is a common condition resulted ref from pathology of the nervous system. It is a common syndrome comprising hyperalgesia, allodynia and spontaneous pain. The chronic constriction injury (CCI) of the sciatic nerve is a widely used model of neuropathic pain which evokes a series of molecular, biochemical and cytoarchitectural changes in primary sensory neurons and produces neuropathic
Neuropathic pain is a widespread health[1]. It is a complex disorder that leads to chronic illness. Although considerable progress has been made, the mechanisms of neuropathic pain have not been fully elucidated[2]. Accumulating evidence indicates that neuroinflammatory may play a critical role in the initiation and maintenance of neuropathic pain, which is now considered to be a neuroimmune disorder[3-6]. Researches showed that activation of glial cells (microglia and astrocytes) contributes to central nervous system neuroinflammation and promotes central sensitization, as well as subsequent development and maintenance of neuropathic pain[7-9]. In addition, several studies have shown that inhibiting microglial and astrocytic activation have analgesic effects in neuropathy[10-12]. Whereas, currently available drugs are either insufficiently effective, or produce undesirable side effects[6].
Pain is something that connects all of us. From birth to death we can identify with each other the idea and arguably the perception of it. We all know we experience it, but what is more important is how we all perceive it. It is known that there are people out there with a ‘high’ pain tolerance and there are also ones out there with a ‘low’ pain tolerance, but what is different between them? We also know that pain is an objective response to certain stimuli, there are neurons that sense and feel pain and there are nerve impulses that send these “painful” messages to the brain. What we don’t know is where the pain
Physiological pain includes nociceptive or inflammatory pain; Pathological or mal-adaptive pain includes neuropathic pain. This classification could help in mechanism-based management of pain though both pains usually exist together in some proportion.
Pain can be defined in three different forms. The initial and the minimal contact with the damaging stimuli can be described as the warning for the physiological protective system. This initial stage is called the nociceptive pain. The warning system demands immediate response and causes immediate withdrawal from the painful or damaging stimulus (Woolf 1).Second type of pain is called inflammatory pain, this type of pain activates when the person feels the pain and it is necessary to heal the injured tissues. Pain tenderness and hypersensitivity reduces future risk for the damage and side by side promotes recovery (Woolf 1).The third and last type of pain is not protective in fact it is maladaptive. This is known as pathological pain.
There are many different types of pain which can be categorised depending on how the pain is caused and how long the pain lasts. If pain results from tissue damage then it is called nociceptive pain and this includes pain from pressure applied outside of the body, like a cut or a burn, or from pressure inside the body such as a tumour. Another type of pain is neuropathic pain which is pain experienced when there is damage to
al., 2009). Pain was defined by International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) as an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage or described in terms of such damage (IASP, 2002). Pain usually occurred whenever any tissues were damaged and it did the individual to react to remove the pain stimulus. In such situation, pain perception was a normal physiologic response mediumted by healthy nervous system (Fields and Martin, 2008).