[Batou]

Definitions of Different Types of Pain

Pain - An unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage or described in terms of such damage

Acute pain - The normal, predictable, appropriate response to a noxious stimulus or disease process that threatens or produces tissue injury, and that abates following remission of the stimulus or healing of the injury

Chronic pain - Pain associated with a chronic disorder, or pain that persists beyond resolution of an underlying disorder or healing of an injury, and that is often more intense than the underlying process would predict

Nociceptive pain - Pain in response to a noxious stimulus that alerts the organism to impending tissue injury

Inflammatory pain - Pain in response to tissue injury and the resulting inflammatory process

Neuropathic pain - Pain produced by damage to or dysfunction of neurons in the peripheral or central nervous system

Mixed etiology pain - Pain that contains both inflammatory and neuropathic components

Peripheral sensitization - Increased excitability of peripheral nociceptors, often mediated by an inflammatory process

Central sensitization - Increased excitability of central pain-transmitting neurons that may be mediated by an inflammatory process

Dual mechanism pain - Pain that is amplified and maintained by both peripheral and central sensitization

This post has been edited by Batou: 28 April 2006 - 07:49 PM