Pain Management

Types of Pain

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Pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage. The International Association for the Study of Pain classified pain according to specific characteristics region of the body involved system whose dysfunction may be causing the pain duration and pattern of occurrence, intensity and time since onset, and Etiology. Woolf suggests three classes of pain : nociceptive pain, inflammatory pain which is associated with tissue damage and the infiltration of immune cells, and pathological pain which is a disease state caused by damage to the nervous system or by its abnormal function. Simply pain can be classified as Nociceptive pain - caused by stimulation of peripheral nerve fibers that respond only to stimuli approaching or exceeding harmful intensity. Neuropathic pain- caused by damage or disease affecting any part of the nervous system involved in bodily feelings. Psychogenic pain- also called psychalgia or somatoform pain, pain caused by mental, emotional, or behavioral factors. Headache, back pain, and stomach pain are sometimes diagnosed as psychogenic pain. Breakthrough pain- is transitory acute pain that comes on suddenly and is not alleviated by the patient's normal pain management. It is common in cancer patients who often have background pain that is generally well controlled by medications. Incident pain- pain that arises as a result of activity, such as movement of an arthritic joint, stretching a wound, etc. Acute Pain-it is usually associated with clear injury or disease.  An example of acute pain is post surgical pain, in which the course of injury is clear, and we can expect the pain to lessen as the surgical wound heals. Chronic pain is more complicated. Although it is often initially associated with an nerve injury, the association is less clear over time.  Thus, it may persist well beyond the usual length on an injury seems to be “self perpetuating.”