Pain

According to the International Society for the Study of Pain, there are two different terms: pain and nociception. Pain is a subjective experience that accompanies nociception, but can also arise without any stimulus. It includes the emotion response. Nociception is a neurophysiology term and denotes the activity in the nerve pathways. These pathways transmit the unpleasant signals that are not always painful. Although pain can be associated with biological tissue damage or inflammation, this is often not the case. Despite its unpleasantness, pain is a critical component of the body's defense system. It is part of a rapid warning and defense relay instructing the motoneuron of the central nervous system to minimize detected physical harm. The gate control theory of pain is a theory concerning how cognitive and emotional factors might dramatically influence painful sensations. It focuses on different pain states at the brain, rather than at the perceived site of injury. ==Nociception== Nociception is the physiological sense for perception of physiological pain. Nociception does not describe psychological pain. Nociceptors are the free nerve endings of neurons that have their cell bodies outside the spinal column in the dorsal root ganglion and are named based upon their appearance at their sensory ends. These sensory endings look like the branches of small bushes. The interpretation of pain occurs when the nociceptors are stimulated and subsequently transmit signals through sensory neurons in the spinal cord, which releases glutamic acid, a major exicitory neurotransmitter that relays signals from one neuron to another and ultimately to the thalamus, in which pain perception occurs. From the thalumus, the signal travels to the cerebrum, at which point the individual becomes fully aware of the pain. Interestingly, the brain itself is devoid of nociceptive tissue, and hence cannot experience pain (thus a headache is not pain in the brain itself). Some evolutionary biologists have speculated that this lack of nociceptive tissue might be due to the fact that any injury of sufficient magnitude to cause pain in the brain has a sufficiently high probability of being fatal that development of nociceptive tissue therein would have little to no survival benefit. If pain is defined as a signal of present or impending tissue damage effected by a harmful stimulus then the ability to experience pain or irritation is observable in most multi-cell (biology) organisms. Even some plants have the ability to retract from a noxious stimulus. Whether this sensation of pain is equivalent to the human experience is debatable. ==Interpretation of pain== The unpleasantness of pain encourages an organism to use any means at its disposal to disengage from the noxious stimuli that it assumes cause the pain. It may, of course, have incorrectly determined the cause. Preliminary pain can serve to indicate that an injury is imminent, such as the ache from a "soon-to-be-broken" bone. Pain may also promote the healing process as most organisms will protect an injured region from further damage in order to avoid further pain. Despite its unpleasantness, pain is an important part of human existence. The deliberate infliction of pain to coerce a response or reaction from a person is known as torture. The study of pain has in recent years diverged into many different fields from pharmacology to psychology and neurobiology. Pain has also provided an interested take for the search for the neural correlates of consciousness, as pain has many subjective psychological aspects besides the physiological nociception. ==Types of pain== Acute pain is defined as short-term pain or pain with an easily identifiable cause. Acute pain is the body's warning of present damage to tissue or disease. It is often fast and sharp followed by aching pain. Acute pain is centralized in one area before becoming somewhat spread out. This type of pain responds well to medications. Chronic pain is medically defined as pain that has lasted 6 months or longer. This constant or intermittent pain has often outlived its purpose, as it does not help the body to prevent injury. It is often more difficult to treat than acute pain. Expert care is generally necessary to treat any pain that has become chronic. When opioids are used for prolonged periods drug tolerance, chemical dependency and even psychological addiction may occur. While drug tolerance and chemical dependency are common among opioid users, psychological addiction is rare. The experience of physiological pain can be grouped into four categories according to the source and related nociceptors (pain detecting nerves). Cutaneous pain is caused by injury to the skin or superficial tissues. Cutaneous nociceptors terminate just below the skin, and due to the high concentration of nerve endings, produce a well-defined, localised pain of short duration. Example injuries that produce cutaneous pain include paper cuts, minor (first degree) burns and lacerations. Somatic pain originates from ligaments, tendons, bones, blood vessels, and even nerves themselves, and are detected with somatic nociceptors. The scarcity of pain receptors in these areas produces a dull, poorly-localised pain of longer duration than cutaneous pain; examples include sprained ankle and broken bones. Visceral pain originates from body organs. Visceral nociceptors are located within body organs and internal cavities. The even greater scarcity of nociceptors in these areas produces a pain usually more aching and of a longer duration than somatic pain. Visceral pain is extremely difficult to localise, and several injuries to visceral tissue exhibit referred pain, where the sensation is localised to an area completely unrelated to the site of injury. Myocardial ischaemia (the loss of blood flow to a part of the heart muscle tissue) is possibly the best known example of referred pain; the sensation can occur in the upper chest as a restricted feeling, or as an ache in the left shoulder, arm or even hand. Gate control theory of pain is the sensation of pain from a limb that one no longer has or no longer gets physical signals from - an experience almost universally reported by amputees and quadriplegias. Finally, neuropathic pain ("neurasthenia") can occur as a result of injury or disease to the nerve tissue itself. This can disrupt the ability of the sensory nerves to transmit correct information to the thalamus, and hence the brain interprets painful stimuli even though there is no obvious or documented physiologic cause for the pain. ==Classification of Pain== Pain can be functionally classified into fast pain and slow pain. * Fast pain - Fast pain is felt within 0.1s of application of the pain stimulus. It can be described as sharp, acute, pricking pain and includes mechanical and thermal pain. It is mediated by type A &Delta fibres at rates of between 6-30m/s. * Slow pain - Slow pain is an aching, throbbing, burning, chronic pain. Chemical pain is an example of slow pain. It is mediated by slowed type C pain fibres at rates of between 0.5-2m/s ==Pain Receptors== All pain receptors are free nerve endings. There are mechanical, thermal and chemical pain receptors. They are found in skin, on internal surfaces such as periosteum and joint surfaces. Deep internal surfaces are only weakly supplied with pain receptors and will propagate sensations of chronic, aching pain if tissue damage in these areas is experienced. Pain receptors do not adapt to stimulus. In some conditions, excitation of pain fibres becomes greater as the pain stimulus continues, leading to hyperalgesia. ==Transmission of Pain Signals in the Central Nervous System== There are 2 pathways for transmission of pain in the CNS. These are the neospinothalamic tract (for fast pain) and the paleospinothalamic tract (for slow pain). *Pathway for Fast Pain - Fast pain travels via type A_δ (A-delta) fibres to terminate on lamina I (lamina marginalis) of the dorsal horns. Second order neurons of the neospinothalamic tract then take off and give rise to long fibres which cross the midline through the anterior commisure and pass upwards in the contralateral anterolateral columns. These fibres then terminate on the Ventrobasal Complex (VBC) of the thalamus. From here, third order neurons communicate with the somatic sensory cortex. Fast pain can be localised easily if A &delta fibres are stimulated together with tactile receptors. *Pathway for Slow Pain - Slow pain is transmitted via slower type C fibres to lamina II and III of the dorsa horns, together known as the substantia gelatinosa. Second order neurons take off and terminatein lamina V, also in the dorsal horn. Third order neurons then take off and join fibres from the fast pathway, crossing to the opposite side via the anterior commisure, and travelling upwards through the anterolateral pathway. These neurons terminate widely in the brain stem, with one tenth of fibres stopping in the thalamus, and the rest stopping in the medulla, pons and mesencephalon. Slow pain is poorly localized . ==The Analgesia System of the Central Nervous System== The analgesia system is mediated by 3 major components : the periaquaductal grey, the nuclear raphe magnus, and the pain inhibitory complex of the dorsal horns of the spinal cord. ==Referred Pain== Referred pain is a phenomenon which arises when visceral pain fibres and pain fibres from the skin synapse on the same second order pain fibres. Thus pain arising from the viscera appear to come from the skin. ==Pain and alternative medicine== A recent [http://nccam.nih.gov/news/2004/052704.htm survey] by U.S. National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine found pain was the most common reason to use complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). Among American adults who used CAM in 2002, 16.8% used CAM to treat back pain; 6.6% for neck pain; 4.9% for arthritis; 4.9% for joint pain; 3.1% for headache; and 2.4% used CAM to treat recurring pain. (Some survey respondents may have used CAM to treat more than one of these pain conditions.) One such alternative, traditional Chinese medicine, views pain as a qi "blockage" equivalent to electrical resistance, or as "stagnation of blood" – theorized as dehydration inhibiting metabolism. Traditional Chinese treatments such as acupuncture are more effective for nonPhysical traumatic pain than traumatic pain. ==Related topics== *Analgesics: drugs that reduce pain *Anesthesia: including general anesthesia and local anesthesia *Pain and pleasure: the relationship between the two sensations *Pain asymbolia: condition allowing the perception of pain without suffering *Algolagnia: the paraphilia of deriving pleasure from certain kinds of pain *Motivation: the human brain tries to avoid what it thinks generates pain and seeks what it thinks generates pleasure *Pain medicine *Meaning of pain ==External links== * [http://www.iasp-pain.org/ International Association for the Study of Pain] - scientific multidisciplinany body * [http://www.pain.remedica.com International Journal of Pain Medicine and Palliative Care] * [http://www.thenakedscientists.com/html/columnists/barrygibbcolumn3.htm Sea Snails (Conus) harbour powerful new painkillers] - the ACV1 snail polypeptide appears to be a potential analgesic * [http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993673 Fish capable of experiencing pain] (rainbow trout may show pain responses, contrary to popular belief) - New Scientist 2003 * [http://www.thenakedscientists.com/html/columnists/petermcnaughtoncolumn1.htm Developments in the neuroscience of pain] Nociception Pain

Pain

EntmootsOfTrolls would have liked this article to be part of User:EntmootsOfTrolls/WikiProject Body, Cognition and Senses, which provides guidelines for articles on those topics, and seeks stronger cross-linkage and cross-cultural treatment of all of these topics. Given that sense of pain is in fact a sense, this is a central article in that project. The main impact of that project on this article will be to neutralize language and avoid assuming the biomedical model too much. Pain for instance had no link to pain control methods other than drugs, and actually said that biomedical causes exist for pain. That is just not always true, at least not so we can prove. The WikiProject is just about removing this sort of culturally-biased claim, adding mention of other approaches or beliefs from other cultures, and trying to cross-link a lot. * Chronic pain is primarily rooted in biomedical causes, however. The only other option is that it's psychosomatic, which is quite rare. This article shouldn't state beliefs from other cultures unless they are part of a common treatment method used. It should simply be stated that a certain treatment is used without explanation of it as it's not directly relevant to this article. It certainly shouldn't just mention drugs though, there are a variety of other medical treatments available. I'll consider adding some others in like physical therapy, TENS stimulation, accupunctre, bio-feedback/meditation, etc... -Nathan ----- I've read that chrnoic pain sufferers don't generally become addicted to painkillers, even such as morphine. Then again, it was the opinion of a chronic pain support association of some sort. But there's certainly a large body of chronic pain sufferes who feel they need stronger medication. http://familydoctor.org/handouts/122.html -- "difference between "physical dependence" and "psychological addiction."" * It's true, psychological addiction is rare among chronic pain patients. It's chemical dependency (physical addiction/depdendency) that's common. Keep in mind that chronic pain users are using the medication to treat legitimate pain, which is why it's uncommon to become psychologically addicted. I know many people with chronic pain (myself included) and the idea of using the drugs prescribed for a very serious medical disorder for fun is appaling to them. This is complicated by the fact that if they do get psychologically addicted their doctor will refuse to prescribe them medication, meaning that they would be left with tons of untreated pain (that is a VERY strong deterrant to recreational use). Many people taking the medications don't even get a high/buzz/whatever. In fact, some have very negative reactions to them. -Nathan ---- Could someone write information about non-human pain: animal pain. The requirements for pain: a nervous system, nociceptors, etc. What is pain's evolutionary significance. :That seems to be well handled now. And it would be better to write an article on the more objectively observable phenomenon: irritation. We can't say that an oyster feels pain, but we can say it does react to something irritating it, to produce something that is useful to us, and not to it. We can also say that an amoeba avoids a pin we poke it with, but not how much it feels this. Irritation is apparently the only universal sense! ---- Philosophical issues are interesting, but an article heavily focused on philosphy seems to take an anthrocentric approach. Our linquistically constructed speculations about the meaning of pain might not contribute to knowledge of what we share with other animals as well as might a simple description of the functions of pain mechanisms. The linguistic construction of the bio-medical model has some limitations, but there is probably no reason to omit the perspective of the vast majority of medical practitioners in favor of esoteric philosophical considerations that do not find prominant discussion in any popular venue or professional literature in which the topic of pain is regularly considered. I would rather see philosophy disussed in an article perhaps titled Pain (philosophy), and which more thouroghly surveys historical and perhaps non-Western philosophies of pain. Along those lines, articles would do well to comment on how widely received are esoteric views of pain and pleasure, and by whom they are so accepted and rejected. My gut reaction in reading this page was that I was being preached at in a persuasive effort to influence my perception of Western culture. I wouldn't mind so much considering esoteric views of pain if the aritcle acurately preached standard taxonomy. The heavy hand of a contributor who wants to spread a non-biomedical approach reminds me of the Church's early campaigns against the development of a standard taxonomy for describing the human body. The church's problem was that such descriptive language tended to weaken the church's authority in declaring the nature of human reality. Speculative approaches in authoritatarian language also fail to rise to the NPOV standard widely accepted here. The claim that "it (pain) may well be an evolutionary artifact that does us little good any more" leaves Wikipedia speculating against the wisdom of millions of years of evolution. Who is declaring how ''well'' it ''may be''? Nobody, as written, beyond the anonymous authority of Wikipedia. It also may well be that the human species would not long survive without the biological tools it inherited from its animal ancestors. Pain most certainly does have direct links to pain control methods, and they start in the brains of most species with the endogenous endorphin system. Historic pain control methods directly exploid chemicals related to the biological pain control system. The discussion of pain and pleasure needs to address some of the more difficult biomechanical issues about the role of endorphins both in pain regulation and in the subjective experience of pleasure. An understanding of endorphin systems can provide a better basis for readers to make their own judgements about esoteric philosophical issues related to law and societies' implicit threat of pain to acheive social compliance. Further, the assertion that pain is a primary tool for social control might exhibit some neurological naivitee. Fear is a different neurological response than pain, and training of fear responses is probably more recognized as the standard tool of social control (beyond Chomskian philosophy). The article is also short on biomechanical information that could better explain why people suffering pain do not become addicted to opiods. The basic difference between opiod response among those suffering physical pain and all others is that those in physical pain almost always present increased adrenal and cortisol levels, which generally act against the opiods sedating effects, and which dulls the addictive quality of sustained opiod use. User:SoCal 16:43, 19 Feb 2004 (UTC) :Also, I am removing the last line that says an ethics of pain will have to recognize something, for several reasons. One is that Wikipedia is not an authority that declares who ''will have to'' do what based on any logical construct, no matter how solid. Another is that the language personifies ''ethic'' and as written avoids accurately saying homoids who strive to develop an ethic of pain are confronted by various rhetorical and philosophical conflicts and limitations. :In defense of biomedical physiological language, an accurate understanding of the compassionate capacity built into a brain that allows it to conjecture on the pain of others might provide as much a useful nudge toward understanding the complexities of soldiers perception of others pain as would the firm rhetorical push from a paragraph more about language and philosophy than about the physiology of pain, and the physiological perception of pain. (See ''Imagery in Healing, Shamanism in Modern Medicine, Shambhala, Boston, 1985'') User:SoCal These comments make no sense in the context of the page as it now stands. The section on pain and philosophy is now at Pain (philosophy)User:SoCal 04:49, 20 Feb 2004 (UTC) This page still needs to be cleaned up but I helped create a clear definition for it so people who are doing research can get some immediate knowledge from it. I also removed the word "modern" as a description of the Gate control theory of pain because this constituted a POV. Also the biological definition has allot of evidence in its favor. Overall its better than nothing. It is also hard to beleive there is no entry for spinal column. hmmmm. User:GrazingshipIV 03:44, Mar 11, 2004 (UTC) ---- ''"However, there is much evidence that pain can retard healing in the hominoid"'' How? What evidence? ''"Recently, scientific findings show the first evidence that sunlight can affect the perception of pain."'' How? What findings? User:200.149.25.2 02:19, 4 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Pain

Emotion Nociception Symptoms

Pain

Hello and Wikipedia:Welcome, newcomers to Wikipedia! Hope you like it here, and stick around. Here are some tips to help you get started: *To sign your posts (on Wikipedia:Tutorial (Talk pages), for example) use the '~' symbol. To insert just your name, type ~~~ (3 tildes), or, to insert your name and timestamp, use ~~~~ (4 tildes). * Try the Wikipedia:Tutorial, and feel free to experiment in the Wikipedia:Test area. * If you need Wikipedia:Help, post a question at the Wikipedia:Help desk * Eventually, you might want to read the Wikipedia:Manual of Style and Wikipedia:Policies and guidelines. *Remember Wikipedia:Neutral point of view * Explore, Wikipedia:Be bold in updating pages, and, most importantly, have fun! Good luck! User:Meelar_User_talk:Meelar">User:Meelar|User:Meelar User talk:Meelar 20:45, Dec 18, 2004 (UTC)

See other meanings of words starting from letter:

P

PA | PB | PC | PD | PE | PF | PG | PH | PI | PJ | PK | PL | PM | PN | PO | PR | PS | PT | PU | PW | PX | PY | PZ |

Words begining with Pain:

Pain
Pain
Pain
Pain
Pain-killer
Painavu
Painaw
Painbearer
Painbearer
Paincourtville,_LA
Paincourtville,_Louisiana
Paindoc
Paine
Painesville
Painesville,_OH
Painesville,_Ohio
Paine_Field
Paine_Field-Lake_Stickney
Paine_Field-Lake_Stickney,_WA
Paine_Field-Lake_Stickney,_Washington
Paine_Towers
Paine_Wingate
Painface
Painface
Painful
Paington
Painiac
Painite
Painkhi
Painkiller
Painkillers
Painkiller_(album)
Painkiller_(album)
Painkiller_(artist)
Painkiller_(band)
Painkiller_(disambiguation)
Painkiller_(game)
Painkiller_Magazine
Painlev�_transcendents
Painlev�_transcendents
Painlord2k
PainMan
PainMan
Painstick
Painstream
Painswick
Painswick
Pains_and_Penalties_Bill_1820
Paint
Paint
Paint,_PA
Paint,_Pennsylvania
Paint-Ball
Paint-ball
Paint.NET
Paint.NET
Paint.Net
Paint.net
PaintBall
Paintball
Paintball
Paintball
Paintball-Net
Paintball-net
Paintballing
Paintballnet
Paintballs
Paintball_guns
Paintball_net
Paintbox
Paintbrush_for_Windows
Painted
PaintedTongue.jpeg
Painted_Angels
Painted_Apple_Moth
Painted_Bunting
Painted_Desert
Painted_fish
Painted_fish
Painted_glass
Painted_Hall,_Greenwich
Painted_Ladies
Painted_ladies
Painted_Lady
Painted_Lady
Painted_lady
Painted_Porch
Painted_Post,_New_York
Painted_Rock_Reservoir,_Arizona
Painted_Rock_Reservoir,_AZ
Painted_Smiles
Painted_Snipe
Painted_snipe
Painted_Stoa
Painted_Stork
Painted_stork
Painted_tongue
Painted_Turtle
Painted_Whore
Painted_Whore
Painter
Painter
Painter's_algorithm
Painter's_algorithm
Painter's_algorithm.psp.bz2
Painter's_colic
Painter,_VA
Painter,_Virginia
Painter-Stainers'_Company
Painterly
Painters
Painters
Painters
Painters_algorithm
Painters_by_nationality
Painters_by_nationality
Painters_by_period
Painter_and_Limner
Painter_Weber_Max
Paintin'_The_Town_Brown:_Ween_Live_1990-1998
PainTing
PaintIng
Painting
Painting
Painting
Painting
Painting
Painting-knife
Paintings
Paintings
Paintings
Paintings,_record_prices
Paintings,_Transpressionism
Paintings_by_Charles_Marion_Russell
Paintings_containing_nudity
Paintings_of_the_Blessed_Virgin_Mary
Painting_basic_topics
Painting_basic_topics
Painting_for_Posterity?
Painting_of_the_United_States
Painting_of_Wawona_Hotel_by_Thomas_Hill.jpeg
Painting_Oil
Painting_Oil
Painting_oil
Painting_oil
Painting_style
Painting_style
Painting_Styles
Painting_styles
Painting_tutorials
Paintmash
Paints
Paintshop_Pro
Paintsville
Paintsville,_Kentucky
Paintsville,_KY
Paint_(disambiguation)
Paint_Ball
Paint_ball
Paint_balling
Paint_by_numbers
Paint_marker
Paint_NET
Paint_program
Paint_Rock
Paint_Rock,_AL
Paint_Rock,_Alabama
Paint_Rock,_Alabama
Paint_Rock,_Texas
Paint_Rock,_TX
Paint_scheme
Paint_Shop_Pro
Paint_Shop_Pro
Paint_stripper
Paint_The_Sky_With_Stars
Paint_The_Sky_With_Stars
Paint_thinner
Paint_Township,_Clarion_County,_PA
Paint_Township,_Clarion_County,_Pennsylvania
Paint_Township,_PA
Paint_Township,_Pennsylvania
Paint_Township,_Somerset_County,_PA
Paint_Township,_Somerset_County,_Pennsylvania
Paint_Your_Wagon
Pain_(band)
Pain_(philosophy)
Pain_(philosophy)
Pain_and_pleasure
Pain_and_pleasure
Pain_and_pleasure_(EP)
Pain_Asymbolia
Pain_asymbolia
Pain_au_chocolat
Pain_control
Pain_Elemental
Pain_in_the_Ed
Pain_killer
Pain_Management
Pain_management
Pain_management
Pain_medicine
Pain_Not_Bread
Pain_of_pain
Pain_of_Salvation
Pain_of_Salvation
Pain_of_salvation
Pain_play
Pain_relief
Pain_Relief_Foundation
Pain_reliever
Pain_Relievers
Pain_Series
Pain_therapy