Pathological Pain

Everyone experiences physical pain at some time in their life, but it’s not treated all the same. Dr. Miles Day, the Medical Director of the Grace Health System Pain Management Center, says there are two separate kinds of pain. The first is called nociceptive pain, which is what you feel when you sprain your ankle, break a bone, or burn your finger. Cancer pain and arthritis pain are common types of chronic nociceptive pain. It responds well to pain medications, anti-inflammatory agents, or other drugs.

“Pain is much more than a physical sensation caused by a specific stimulus. An individual's perception of pain has important affective (emotional), cognitive, behavioral, and sensory components that are shaped by past experience, culture, and situational factors. The nature of the stimulus for pain can be physical, psychological, or a combination of both.” (Potter, Perry, Stockert, Hall, & Peterson, 2014 p. 141) As stated by Potter et al, the different natures of pain are dealt with differently depending on many factors. Knowing this, treating pain can be very difficult as there is no single or clear cut way of measuring it; “Even though the assessment and treatment of pain is a universally important health care issue,

Pain can be categorized as acute or chronic pain. Chronic pain is described as pain that is both long-term and continuous, or is pain that persists after the expected healing time following an injury (British Pain Society, n.d.) Acute pain can provide a warning signal that an illness or injury has occurred. It is defined as pain that lasts less than three months and lessens with healing (Briggs, 2010). Acute pain can then be described in more detail by the following categories; somatic, visceral and neuropathic pain. Somatic pain is a localized pain described as sharp, burning, dull, aching or cramping. It is seen with incisional pain and orthopedic injuries or procedures. Visceral pain refers to an injury to the organs and linings of the body cavities. It produces diffuse pain and can be described as splitting, sharp or stabbing. This is pain that be described from patients with appendicitis, pancreatitis or intestinal injuries and illnesses. Injuries to the nerve fibers, spinal cord and central nervous system cause neuropathic pain. This pain can be described as shooting, burning, fiery, sharp, and as a painful numbness. This can be seen after an

Pain is defined as the patient’s described experience to actual or potential tissue damage (Yukari, Noriko, & Okamoto, 2010). It is an issue in the care of any patient, because pain adversely affects the health of the patient. Not only is pain uncomfortable, it causes the release of specific hormones, adrenaline, and other chemicals that make healing difficult, if not impossible. It decreases patient mobility, leading to complications of secondary pneumonia and pressure ulcers (Yukari, Noriko, & Okamoto, 2010). It can have such a severe effect on the body that it may cause a shock like syndrome that can cause death (Yukari, Noriko, & Okamoto, 2010). For all of these reasons, pain management is paramount to any patient care plan.

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

Pain, as IASP defines is “an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential damage to tissue, or described in terms of such damage." The person perceives pain due to different nociceptors present at the peripheral and central nervous system. Pain due to corrosive chemicals and temperature are detected through Transient Receptors Potential Vanilloid receptors like TRPV1(Caterina et al., 1997) and Mechanical pain is detected through receptors like TRPVA1(Lennertz et al., 2012) these are present at the periphery and are present at the axons of first order nerve fibers. These nerve fibers are of two kinds Aδ fibers (myelinated and fast conducting) and C fibers (non-myelinated and slow conducting) which are in the

Pain is a multidimensional concept which encompasses evolutionarily developed body responses to algesic factors. Impeding individuals’ health, quality of life, and well-being, pain accompanies a wide range of medical conditions. Depending on the etiopathogenesis, all pain syndromes are divided into nociceptive, neuropathic, and psychogenic pain. Factors that cause pain sense modalities are defined as algogenic or nociceptive. Being directed towards eliminating these factors, pain mobilizes a variety of functional systems to protect the body and triggers such psychophysiological components as consciousness, sensation, memory, motivation, emotions, and vegetative, somatic, and behavioral reactions. However, a plethora of theories did not exhaustively explain mechanisms underlying pain sense modalities until 1965 when Ronald Melzack and Charles Patrick Wall suggested the Gate Control Theory of Pain. This theory was the first attempt to unite physiological and psychological factors and develop an integrative model of pain. Today, the Gate Control Theory of Pain is utilized in medical practice and clinical activities to control acute and chronic pain. This paper will explore recent scientific research and current implementation of this theory in clinical practice by reviewing pertinent academic publications.

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

Pain is not intentionally caused, or better accounted for from a mood or anxiety disorder.

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

Pain can be classified based on its type. It can be acute, cancer or chronic of by pathophysiology that can either be visceral or somatic. Neuropathic pain is the pain ensuing from injury to the tissues hence causing nerve dysfunction. Neuropathic pain is therefore described as a shooting, throbbing, or cold sensation. Cancer pain can also be defined as the pain that arises from both neuropathic and nociceptive pain. It is therefore important to identify the mechanisms as well as different forms of pain considering that selective treatment helps improve the outcomes of pain control.

In recent years, it has been found that insulin reduces the pain in rats (Anuradha et al., 2004; Takeshita and Yamaguchi, 1997). In our previous study, as yet unpublished, the analgesic effect of ICV injection of insulin in non- diabetic rats was found.

According to Mary L. Gavin, a Senior Medical editor for KidsHealth, explains when nerves are stimulated, the pain signals are sent to the brain but if the injured person was to take a painkiller, the chemicals in the medication stops the nerve endings from sending the signal to the brain. Although still hurt, the pain is not felt because the brain does not the body is hurt. Pain is used as a security to protect from hurting more. An example Gavin uses is “if you couldn't feel pain, and you had your hand on a hot stove, you wouldn't know your hand was burning. Because of pain, your brain gets the message to get your hand off the stove right away!” Despite this article is used to inform children, the same works with more intense opioids. Whether experiencing tooth ache and taking an ibuprofen or receiving oral surgery and consuming hydrocodone, the medicine effects the emotional response the brain would feel if it were to receive the pain signals. It is very easy to

Pain is the last vital sign but it important because it reveals a lot about a person’s health. It not only affects a person’s physical health but their mental health as well. Things like mood, activity, sleep, hygiene, appetite, and the ability to focus and concentrate. Experiencing pain varies between everyone because what may be excruciating to someone may seem moderate to the other. Doctors may ask questions like Where is the pain? What kind of pain is it: sharp, dull, aching, throbbing, shooting burning, etc.? When did it start? What makes it worse? What helps ease it?, and How does it affect your life?

The International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) has the best known and accepted pain definition: Pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional/affective and cognitive experience that is associated with actual or potential tissue damage or is described in terms of such damage. (Society, n.d.) Pain is always a personal, subjective, unique (Society, n.d.) , and multidimensional experience and is affected by the patient’s gender (‘In this section’, 2014), age, culture, previous pain experiences, and emotional factors, such as joy,