Pain perception can be felt by a noxious stimulus or a psychological trigger. There are different types of pain, nociceptive pain, which is caused by physical injury and psychogenic pain, something that is caused emotionally. The noxious stimulus sends a signal to the brain and spinal cord. The signal is known as an action potential. Pain can be felt in many different ways, for example, you may feel very little pain than expected from a result of a physical injury, or you may feel pain even when there is no physical injury this is known as psychogenic pain. Pain is processed in the limbic system. The limbic system is a bundle of networks and nerves located on either side of the thalamus. It plays a huge role in pain perception as it adjusts …show more content…
This is why distracting patients can help reduce the amount of pain that they may be feeling whereas paying close attention to pain can intensify the sensation. If the extent of the physical injury is severe then patients will be given medication such as a type of opioid (used to relief pain). However sometimes these drugs do not relieve the pain, for example, a burn victim will suffer from pain regardless of the treatment they may receive. This is another example of pain being perceived more than what is …show more content…
A great example of this was given in the Open University study resources, section 3.4.3 That soldiers in a battlefield suffering from a severe injury may not realise or perceive their pain until they are safely off the battlefield.
When pain is perceived in a different location to the site of injury this is called referred pain. A good example of referred pain is Angina. Angina is a chest pain sensation of either pressure or squeezing. Which can be caused by ischemia of the heart muscles (restriction in blood supply to body tissues). Angina results in referred pain in the arm, back, neck, jaw and shoulder. This is pain that is being felt in a different place to the actual source of injury.
Brain imaging if frequently used to measure physical and psychogenic pain. Machines such as fMRIs, EEG, CTs and PET scans are used to measure brain activity. An fMRI works by detecting the changes in blood oxygenation and blood flow. When a section of the brain is more active, the oxygen and blood flow will increase in that
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
Other testing procedures that are commonly employed, in order to gain a better visual image of the excitatory activity in the brain are the PET scan and the MRI. According to Kalat (2004), these methods are non-invasive, meaning that they don’t require the insertion of objects into the brain, yet they yield results that allow researchers to record brain activity. The PET scan (positron emission tomography) involves the researcher injecting a radioactive chemical into the patient’s body, which is then absorbed mainly by the brain’s most active cells. With the use of radioactive detectors, placed around the patient’s head, a map is produced that shows which areas of the brain are most active.
The range of medications from anti-inflammatory to opioids is extreme, and have different effects on the human body. Medical professionals have to make the decision whether to give a patient a lower grade pain management drug or a higher grade drug, and they are the ones who have to determine how much pain the patient truly is in when most of a patient 's pain in unseen to the physical eye. “Pain as a presenting complaint accounts for up to 70% of emergency department visits, making it the most common reason to seek health care. Often, it is the only reason patients seek care,” and with this knowledge health care professional need to treat each patient equally in the sense that they are the emergency room or a physician 's office for a reason, and that reason is to relieve the pain they are in (American College of Emergency Physicians Online). The article from the American College of Emergency Physicians continues on to say that, “it is the duty of health care providers to relieve pain and suffering. Therefore, all physicians must overcome their personal barriers to proper analgesic administration,” this is in regards to medical professional who are bias toward specific patients, such as “frequent flyers” or even patients of certain class standing; no matter what their patient may look like or be like they must be treated equally and
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
Have you ever wondered why when you stub your toe on the chair in the living room, it helps tremendously to yell out an expletive or two and vigorously rub the area? I may not be able to discuss the basis for such language in this paper, but we will explore the analgesic response to rubbing that toe, in addition to the mechanism of pain and alternative treatments such as acupuncture and transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation.
Toby-Finn, a 21 year-old Caucasian gentleman, is presented to the Emergency Department with a chief complaint of severe abdominal pain. Toby-Finn, who is a full time college student was just discharged three days ago from the Medical Surgical Unit status post laparoscopy appendectomy. Upon arrival to the Emergency Department, Toby-Finn has a computed tomography of the abdomen, and he is diagnosed with Ischemic Necrosis of Small Bowel, and required to go under another abdominal surgery. Toby-Finn was given a total of four milligrams of Morphine Sulfate intravenously, five milligrams of Reglan intravenously, and one liter of Normal Saline intravenously in the Emergency Department. The admitting physician, Dr. Sophie had contacted the surgeon, Dr. Scarlett for emergency surgery. In the meantime, Dr.Sophie had provided a written order for pain management to keep the patient comfortable.
As we attempt to escape stimuli that cause pain after an initial insult to our body, pain can prevent further damage from occurring. Finally, pain promotes the healing process as we take great care to protect an injured body part from further damage as to minimize the experience of more pain. How is this unpleasant, yet helpful sensation detected? Nociception is the term commonly used to refer to the perception of pain. The receptors involved in pain detection are aptly referred to as nociceptors - receptors for noxious stimuli.
Pain is subjective, acknowledging the level of the pain as reported by the patient is important. (Pellico p. 1242)
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.
Overall, there is an immense amount of research dedicated to understanding the psychobiological causes of phantom pain. A prevalent commonality between the literatures reviewed, suggested that symptoms of phantom pain are a neuro-psychobiological experience rather than a psychological disorder. This was evident by peripheral and central factors that associate the cause of phantom pain with the disruption of sensory nerve impulses due to the damage of sensory nerve fibers after amputation. As well as studies that demonstrated a positive correlation between progressive neuroplastic changes in the cortical reorganisation of the topographical structure in somatosensory cortex and worsening phantom limb pain, inferring that cortical reorganisation mediates the extent of pain experienced.
Most of the noninvasive imaging methods estimate brain activity by changes in blood flow, oxygen consumption, glucose utilization, etc. Discuss the potential problems with using this type of indirect measure.
The major concepts deduced from the hypothesis fall under three categories: (1) multimodal intervention, (2) attentive care, and (3) patient participation. Multimodal intervention includes the concepts of potent pain medication, pharmacological adjuvants, and non-pharmacological adjuvants. Attentive care relates to the assessment of pain and side effects and intervention along with reassessments. Patient participation includes goal setting and patient education. The resulting outcome of these three categories working together is the balance between analgesia and side effects.
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI),which is one of the most exciting recent developments in biomedical magnetic resonance imaging, allows the non-invasive visualisation of human brain function(1).
Unlike physical pain, mental pain is less obvious to the onlooker, but to the afflicted, it is often more difficult to bear. My parents and I have experienced the struggles of living with someone with a wounded spirit. My younger brother has struggled with self esteem, anxiety, and anger issues for as long as I can remember. In our society, mental pain is often seen with a negative connotation. Because there is no blood test or x-ray to diagnose it, many people do not see a true issue when a person struggles with mental pain, making it very difficult for a person to seek help for it. My hope is that one day psychological illnesses will be treated the same as cancer.
"There is much pain that is quite noiseless; and that make human agonies are often a mere whisper in the of hurrying existence. There are glances of hatred that stab and raise no cry of murder; robberies that leave man of woman for ever beggared of peace and joy, yet kept secret by the sufferer-committed to no sound except that of low moans in the night, seen in no writing except that made on the face by the slow months of suppressed anguish and early morning tears. Many an inherited sorrow that has marred a life has been breathed into no human ear." George Eliot (1819-80), English novelist,editor. Felis Holt, the Radical, Introduction (1866).What is pain? In the American Heritage Dictionary, pain is referred to as "an unpleasant sensation occurring in varying degrees of severity as a consequence of injury, disease, or emotional disorder." The word is rooted in Middle English, from an Old French piene, from Latin poena, meaning "penalty or pain", and from Greek pointe, meaning "penalty." Pain is a very realistic problem that many individuals face daily.