In this discussion, I will be looking at the different forms of pain and how this pain is caused within the body. The number of different types of drugs used to treat pain is forever expanding but I will examine the main types of painkiller, how they were discovered and how they work to relieve the symptoms of 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 the actual nerves or central nervous system within the body. It can be caused by conditions such as HIV, cancer and Multiple sclerosis1,2.
Acute pain is mainly to provide a warning signal that something is wrong, for example if you put your hand too near a hot object, pain is experienced which causes you to move your hand away before permanent damage is done. The pain experienced is immediate, usually of short duration and can usually be diagnosed and treated. Chronic pain is continuous pain that persists for a longer period of time and can last up to a lifetime. This type of pain causes the patient permanent discomfort and can severely affect the everyday lifestyle of the sufferer. Arthritis and back pain are common types of chronic pain1,2.
The feeling of pain is caused when damaged tissue stimulates the release of messenger chemicals called neurotransmitters which in turn stimulate the nerve endings and electrical impulses are sent to the brain12.
The body has its own mechanisms for relievin...
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What exactly is pain? According to Webster's dictionary, pain is "physical suffering typically from injury or illness; a distressing sensation in a part of the body; severe mental or emotional distress". Most everyone reading this paper has experienced some form of physical pain at some point during their lives; most everyone has even experienced the common daily pains such as stubbing our toe as we walk through the living room, accidentally biting our tongue as we chew, and having the afternoon headache after a long day of work. No matter the fact that it is unpleasant, pain has a very important role in telling the body that something is not right and leading to behavior that will remove the body from a source of potential injury. Imagine if we could not experience pain. We would not be able to change our behavior in any way when touching the burning hot dish in the oven, resulting in potentially serious burns. We could not recognize that perhaps we twisted an ankle when walking down the stairs, thus continued walking on that foot would exacerbate the injury to the point of not being able to walk at all. Indeed, pain is not pleasant, but in many cases it is an important way for our nervous system to learn from and react to the environment.
Pain has been defined by Coates & Hindle as an unpleasant emotional and sensory experience which signals a potential or actual damage to tissues (2011, p. 213). Pain is a common human experience and can emanate from injury and illness. There are two main types of pain; acute pain is short-lived, lasting for minutes or several days and its onset often takes place rapidly. It results from the activation of pain nerve endings or nociceptors either by internal or external pain stimuli. On the other hand chronic pain is continuous and sometimes recurrent and can last for weeks, months or even years. Chronic pain is usually not located at or related to the tissue undergoing trauma (Draper & Knight, 2007, p. 104). Various theories have been proposed to explain the mechanism underlying the transmission and perception of pain.
There is a general consensus of what physical pain is amongst society. Pain is never good. It is something that hurts and no one ever wants to actually be in pain. In infants and toddlers, pain is associated with cries, tears, and the word “ouch!” As they grow into adults, pain and all of its expressions follow and branch out with them. Its dimensions multiply and what used to hurt as toddlers, no longer does. At the same time, they begin to experience new physical pains – pains, which create such an unimaginable physical suffering. Today, pain remains as an unpleasant feeling that causes physical suffering; however, it can be seen and interpreted from many different vantage points. One perspective is the personal standpoint, where many people have trouble describing the feeling of enduring pain or the physicality of it. Another viewpoint is the neurobiological viewpoint, where neurologists have readily created three separate types of pain and explications for each.
Some cells cause inflammation of the tissue, which raises the temperature of the injured area and is adaptive because it prevents pathogens from entering and spreading into the host. The area of injured tissue also remains very sensitive to pain in order to avoid any type of stimuli
Nociception is the term commonly used to refer to the perception of pain. The receptors involved in pain detection are aptly enough referred to as nociceptors - receptors for noxious stimuli. (1) These nociceptors are free nerve endings that terminate just below the skin as to detect cutaneous pain. Nociceptors are also located in tendons and joints, for detection of somatic pain and in body organs to detect visceral pain. Pain receptors are very numerous in then skin, hence pain detection here is well defined and the source of pain can be easily localized. In tendons, joints, and body organs the pain receptors are fewer. The source of pain therefore is not readily localized. Apparently, the number of nociceptors also influences the duration of the pain felt. Cutaneous pain typically is of short duration, but may be reactivated upon new impacts, while somatic and visceral pain is of longer duration. (2) It is important to note that almost all body tissue is equipped with nociceptors. (1, 2) As explained above, this is an important fact, as pain has primary warning functions. If we did not feel pain and if pain did not impinge on our well-being, we would not seek help when our body aches. Hence, it makes evolutionary sense for the body to be so well equipped with nociceptors in almost all locations. The most notable exception to this logic is the brain. The brain itself has no nociceptors and therefore is pain insensitive. Why is this all-important structure not equipped with and therefore indirectly protected by nociceptors?
There are different types of pain which may be suffered by an individual with cancer, with some patients suffering only one type of pain, but others experiencing a range of all three types. Identifying the type of pain suffered is the first major step in ensuring effective treatment, as not all respond to different treatments in the same way (De Conno & Caraceni, 1996, p.9).
While pain has always been present in humans' lives, Loeser and Melzack (1999) report that it is in only the past 30 years that pain research has made advances in both the treatment and the understanding of pain. There are three basic categories of pain: transient, acute, and chronic.
Zonderman, Jon and Laurel Shader M.D.Drugs and DiseaseNew York, New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987.
Pain affects everyone; it sends thousands of people to hospitals, clinics and private care providers daily. A primitive warning system, pain is an unpleasant but important function for survival. In the physiological sense pain is the uncomfortable sensation felt by the sensory nerves (Taber’s). Pain can be described in a number of ways such as burning, aching or crushing. When assessing pain in her patient, a nurses first measure would be a question; “are you having pain”? No one will dispute the fact that this is the most reliable method of assessment, because pain is exclusively subjective in nature. Most schools teach that ‘pain is present when the patient says it is’.
pain on a person's face and other times you cannot. Every person experiences pain differently.
One type is the physical pain with physical and actual damage in the spine. The second type is the feelings or imagination-based pain.
Chronic pain is pain that is considered to last longer than six months. Chronic pain can be mild to excruciating, and episodic or continuous ("Community," n.d.). With chronic pain, the pain may remain active in the nervous system for months or years (Ratini, 2004). A recent study estimated that 31 percent of the adult United States population suffers from chronic pain, most commonly lower back or osteoarthritic pain (Bostwick, 2014). Chronic idiopathic (i.e. non-cancer related) pain is a significant public health concern, characterized by considerable emotional distress and impairment of social and occupational functioning (Zvolensky, 2011). This distress and impairment leave many adults feeling helpless and on the search for a treatment that will manage the pain.
"An aspirin a day keeps the doctor away." Although this saying can be true, it is not only aspirin that can cure the pains of life, but also several other types of analgesics. There are a wide variety of analgesics. More commonly known as painkillers. The narcotic analgesics act on the central nervous system and change the user's perception; they are more often used for severe pain and can make the user develop an addiction. The nonnarcotic analgesics, known as over the counter or OTC, work at the site of the pain. These do not create tolerance or dependence and do not vary the user's perception. OTC's are more commonly used everyday to treat mild pain.
Pain, a word that is always associated with getting hurt. The real question now is how it hurt. In life people experience many types of pain. There are two different kinds of pain; physical and mental. The physical part of pain is like falling from something, cutting your arm, or stubbing your toe. The mental part of pain is like hurting someone’s feeling from saying something harsh or doing something to them emotionally, which hurts inside. The causes and effects of physical and mental pain are very different but can be both equally devastating and even more dramatic with emotionally disturbed people.
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