1) According to the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP), pain is “An unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage.”
As well as this definition the IASP also added an extensive list of side notes to help clarify what pain is.
The list includes:
Pain is subjective. For this reason this definition does not tie pain to the stimulus. Different people react to a stimulus in various ways. Similarly, the same person may respond differently to the same stimulus under different emotional circumstances.
Individuals are taught what to associate the word “pain” with through childhood experiences. Therefore pain can be influenced by culture.
Stimuli which cause pain are likely to damage tissue
Pain is also an emotional experience
People experience pain without any physical trauma, therefore pain is also a psychological concern.
If someone claims to be in pain, even without physical signs, they should be treated as though they are in pain.
(Merskey and Bogduk, 2012)
Although regarded as an unpleasant experience, pain can be very beneficial: it acts as a warning mechanism to alert us of a danger, either from an external or internal source. By being aware of the danger we can respond accordingly to avoid or restrict damage being done to the body.
2) When the tissue is damaged it is registered by pain receptors (nociceptors) in the skin. The pain receptors form one end of a neuron which is connected at the other end in the spinal cord via the axon. When activated, the nocioceptors send an electrical signal along the neuron to the spinal cord.
In the part of the spinal cord called the dorsal horn, chemical transmitters (neurotransmitters) ca...
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... pain (nociception) occurs. This overrides the inhibitory neuron, and the signal is sent to the brain (gate is open).
Information from the brain can descend down the projection neurons and inhibit the perception of pain (closing the gate).
This theory explains why, if you rub or shake your hand after a mild injury, you can reduce the perception of pain. Merskey, H. and Bogduk, N.
IASP Taxonomy - IASP
In-text: (Merskey and Bogduk, 2012)
Bibliography: Merskey, H. and Bogduk, N. 2012. IASP Taxonomy - IASP. [online] Available at: https://www.iasp-pain.org/Education/Content.aspx?ItemNumber=1698 [Accessed: 1 Apr 2014].
Mydr.com.au.
Pain and how you sense it - myDr.com.au
In-text: (Mydr.com.au, 2007)
Bibliography: Mydr.com.au. 2007. Pain and how you sense it - myDr.com.au. [online] Available at: http://www.mydr.com.au/pain/pain-and-how-you-sense-it [Accessed: 1 Apr 2014].
Briefly explain the process of neurotransmission. Neurotransmission starts with the neuron, the most important part of the central nervous system. A neuron contains a cell body, axon, and dendrites. When a neuron receives an electrical impulse, the impulse travels away from the cell body down the axon. The axon breaks off into axon terminals. At the axon terminals, the electrical impulse creates a neurotransmitter. The neurotransmitter is released into the synapse, a space between two neurons. If the neurotransmitter tries to stimulate a response of another neuron, it is an excitatory neurotransmitter. If the neurotransmitter does not stimulate a response of another neuron it is an inhibitory neurotransmitter. If a response is generated, the second neuron or postsynaptic neuron will receive an action potential at the site of the dendrite and the communication process will continue on. If a response is not generated, neurotransmitters left in the synapse will be absorbed by the first neuron or presynaptic neuron, a process known as reuptake. Neurotransmitters control our body functions, emotions, and
It has been shown that intrathecal administriton of GABA receptor antagonists cause hyperalgesia and allodynia. Constitutive, the increase in the endogenous GABA activity in the spinal cord alleviate pain resulting from noxious and innoxious mechanical and thermal stimuli. Different GABA receptors have different roles in alleviating thermal and mechanical pain in different animal pain models. There is no study to date that has examined the involvement of GABA A and GABA B in sensory dimension of neuropathic pain resulting from compression of spinal cord. The current study tests the hypothesis that GABA A or GABA B receptors contributes to the allodynia and hyperalgesia observed after spinal cord injury. The results showed that the effect of GABA A and GABA B receptors on mechanical hyperalgesia is similar but these receptors have different effects on thermal hyperalgesia. While using baclofen as GABA B receptor agonist does not affect the thermal pain, thermal hyperalgesia resulting from spinal cord injury was greatly alleviated by different doses of GABA A agonist, muscimol. Both Baclofen and muscimol are able to reduce the mechanical and cold allodynia has been seen after spinal cord injury but the effect of baclofen is dose dependent with no effect in higher doses used in this study. While almost all doses of muscimol were used in this study reduce the amount of cold and mechanical allodynia. The other result obtained in this study is the short term effect of GABA agonist. The anitinociceptive effect of Baclofen and muscimol appear to be maxium at 15 min after injection and gradually diminished by time and their analgesic effect disappeared 3 hours after injection.
Each person will respond differently to the pain experience. Therefore, the individual’s attitudes, personal experiences and knowledge are also antecedents to the concept of pain. For instance, a person that has been exposed to severe pain knows the
Pain is something that several Americans suffer from on a daily basis for varying reasons.
The most common and well described pain transmission is “gate control theory of pain”. This theory was first proposed by Melzack and Wall in 1965 whereby they used the analogy of gate to explain the inhibition of pain which exists within the dorsal horn of the spinal cord. For instance, when tissue damage occurs, substances such as prostaglandin, serotonin, histamine and bradykinin are released from the injured cell. Individual usually consume or apply pain medications such as NSAIDs whereby these medications will cause electrical nerve impulse at the end of the sensory nerve fiber via nociceptor. Nociceptor is a pain receptor that is commonly found in the skin, cornea of eye and organ of motion such as muscles and ligaments. These nerve impulses
Institute of Medicine Report from the Committee on Advancing Pain Research, Care and Education. (2011). Relieving Pain in America A Blueprint for Transforming Prevention, Care, Education and Research. Retrieved from http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?records_13172
The human body has developed a pain response in order to avoid injury. For example, if an individual were to place their hand on a hot oven, the excruciating pain would signal the nervous system to move the hand immediately before experiencing irreversible damage.
Pain theory is so far integrated into our history that it dates back to the ancient Greeks. The definition of pain theory is humans giving an explanation for reasons that we may feel pain. Other definitions may include; “physical suffering or discomfort caused by illness or injury, careful effort;
Aim. The purpose of this paper is to clarify and analyze the meaning of the concept of pain. The paper will clarify the defining attributes of pain and identify the antecedents that influence the perception of pain and list the consequences of pain. It will also state the empirical referents in reference to pain.
Pain is universal and personal to those who are experiencing it. It is subjectively measured on a scale of 0-10 with zero being no pain and 10 being the worst pain ever. This can be problematic for patients and doctors because this score can be understated or overstated. Doctors will make quick decisions based on this score. Patients might feel not believed because only they can feel the pain. However, untreated pain symptoms may be associated with impaired activities of daily life and decreased quality of life. Pain is defined in our textbook, “as an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage” (Ignatavicius & Workman, 2016, p 25). Actual pain is understood by most because there is an
Pain, which is defined in its widest sense as an emotion which is the opposite of pleasure (White, 2004, p.455), is one of the major symptoms of cancer, affecting a majority of sufferers at some point during their condition (De Conno & Caraceni, 1996, p.8). The World Health Organization (WHO, 2009, online) suggests that relief from pain may be achieved in more than 90 percent of patients; however, Fitzgibbon and Loeser (2010, p.190) stress that pain may often be undertreated, even in the UK. Foley and Abernathy (2008, p.2759) identify numerous barriers to effective pain management, among which are professional barriers such as inadequate knowledge of pain mechanisms, assessment and management strategies.
In “Happiness and Its Discontents” Daniel M.Haybron describes the relationship between pain and happiness. Put simply, pain doesn 't bring happiness,happiness comes from within.
In a pain assessment, the pain is always subjective, in a verbal patient; pain is what the patient says that it is. Nurses must be able to recognize non verbal signs of pain such as elevated pulse, elevated blood pressure, grimacing, rocking, guarding, all of which are signs of pain (Jensen, 2011). A patient’s ethnicity may have a major influence on their meaning of pain and how it is evaluated and responded to behaviorally as well as emotionally (Campbell, & Edwards 2012). A patient may not feel that their pain is acceptable and they do not want to show that they are in pain. For some people, showing pain indicates that they are weak. Other patients will hide their pain as they do not want to be seen as a bother or be seen as a difficult patient.
The physical aspects of pain can vary greatly from a sharp prick with a shot to the excruciating pain of childbirth.Emotional pain has to be the most horrid, in my opinion, of all types of pain. It feels as if your insides are being wrenched out. When my girlfriend and I broke up, I felt as if she had ripped my heart out and I was standing there watching while she stomped on it.