Exam 2: Pain Flashcards
What is pain?
a unpleasant multidimensional experience; sensory/emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissues damage
What factors can influence the actual pain reaction?
- anxiety
- culture
- past experiences
What is the #1 cause of longterm disability in America?
chronic pain
Who is chronic pain syndrome more common in?
women
5% of women between ages 18-65 experience headache:
15 or more days per month over the course of a year
__________ provides the CNS with info related to deep and superficial body structures
Somatosensory System
Somatosensory System information includes:
- temperature
- touch/pressure
- body position
- pain
What are the 3 different nerve fibers?
- A fibers
- B fibers
- C fibers
These fibers are:
▪ Myelinated, and has the fastest rate of conduction
▪ Conduct, pressure, hot/cold, touch information
▪ RELAY ACUTE PAIN
A fibers
How does A fiber pain feel?
well localized, sharp, stinging, pricking pain
These fibers are:
▪ Myelinated
▪ Transmit information from cutaneous and sub q receptors
B fibers
These fibers are:
▪ Unmyelinated
▪ Smallest diameter = slowest conduction
▪ Conduct warm/hot, mechanical & chemical sensation, and heat/cold induced pain
▪ RELAY CHRONIC PAIN
C fibers
How does C fiber pain feel?
diffusing pain that is dull, burning, and aching
There are 3 levels of neurons, the first order does what?
Detect sensation and transmit sensory info from periphery to the CNS (spinal cord)
There are 3 levels of neurons, the second order does what?
▪ Communicates with reflex responses and sensory pathways in the spinal cord and
travels directly to the brain
▪ The impulses travel from spinal cord to the brain
□ Into the thalamus & cerebellum
There are 3 levels of neurons, the third order does what?
▪ Relay from thalamus brain to the sensory cerebral cortex
▪ Sensation is process and…..
▪ Results in the feeling/interpretation of pain
Pain impulses go from the:
periphery > to the spinal cord > to the brain
Both parallel pathways carry info from the spinal cord to the thalamic region in the
brain, taking different routes but all ending up at the:
thalamus
This pathway is used for rapid transmission of sensory info and consists of large, myelinated fibers
Discriminative Pathways
This ascending pathway conveys pain, temperature & crude sense of touch
Anterolateral Pathways
Damage to the anterolateral pathway results in:
difficulty sensing pain &
temperature
This anterolateral pathways results in rapid transmission of sensory sensation using myelinated type A fibers to the thalamus
Neospinothalamic Tract
The neospinothalamic tracts pain is characterized as ________ and allows the patient to do what?
sharp, fast pain; locate & identify of the pain
This anterolateral pathways results in slow pain through unmyelinated type c fibers to the thalamus
Paleospinothalamic Tract
The paleospinothalamic tract is concerned with what kind of pain?
diffusing/dull-aching unpleasant sensations
The paleospinothalamic tract is commonly associated with what types of pain?
chronic pain & visceral pain
The paleospinothalamic tract activates part of the:
sleep/wake cycles (Reticular Activating System)
What is the purpose of pain?
it is an alarm system that warns of impending tissue injury, and forces the person to go seek help to fix the injury/pain
This theory regards pain as a separate sense and is evoked by the activity of receptors (nociceptors) that transmit special sense to pain centers
in the CNS where the pain is interpreted
specificity theory
In this theory pain signals are sent to the brain when stimuli come together in a specific pattern
Pattern Theory
In the pain theory, light touch is sensed as ______ whereas intense pressure is sensed as _______
touch; pain
In this theory pain impulses are felt when the gate (threshold) is opened at the spinal cord, in response
to an excess of nociceptive impulses and the gate is closed with interventions of nonpharm controls (pain isn’t felt)
Gate Control Theory
The Gate Control Theory can be hindered by _______ or increased by _______
stress; exercise
What is pain threshold?
the amount of stimulus required to elicit a pain response and the nociceptive stimulus is perceived as painful
In this theory the brain contains widely distributed neural network (thalamus, limbic system, somatosensory), which interpret multiple sensory inputs
Neuromatrix theory
This neuromatrix theory phenomenon occurs when pain is felt even when it is not there:
PHANTOM LIMB PAIN
Describe A fibers:
○ Large, myelinated, Fast, sharp pain
○ Release of glutamate at the synapse with the spinal neurons
○ ASSOCIATED WITH ACUTE PAIN
Describe C fibers:
○ Small, nonmyelinated = chronic, slow pain
○ Release glutamate and substance P
This pain is initiated by nociceptors in peripheral tissues when there is damage
Nociceptive Pain
This pain is direct injury or dysfunction of the sensory axons or peripheral/central nerves
Neuropathic Pain
What is pain tolerance?
Maximum intensity/duration of pain that a person is willing to endure before seeking
intervention
What are the different types of pain?
- cutaneous
- deep somatic
- visceral
- referred
This pain is easily localized, sharp in nature with burning qualities and occurs in the skin or subcutaneous tissues
cutaneous pain
This pain is more diffusing and radiating, occurring in the bones, muscles, tendons and joints
deep somatic pain
This pain is one of the most common pains from disease and occurs in the visceral organs
visceral pain
This pain originates in another place then diffuses to another place where it is perceived
referred pain
This pain is short-lived, and is resolved when the underlying cause is resolved (“self-limiting”)
acute pain
What is acute pain initiated by?
trauma, injury, surgery by activation of nociceptors
Initial injury causes ________, and then a secondary wave of intense acute pain results from ____________
nociceptive firing (hyperalgesia); secondary responses (inflammation, edema, etc.) –> can turn into chronic pain if not treated
Treating acute pain before it gets worse increases comfort for the patient and prevents:
hypersensitivity of pain centers in the periphery and CNS (also requires less drugs if treated early)
This pain serves no purpose and lasts longer than what is reasonably expected and is sustained by factors that are remote from the initial cause of the pain
chronic pain