Midterm 2 Flashcards
what is ectopic firing?
fires all by itself to no apparent stimulus (whats happening to diabetic rat)
what is the role of glial cells?
Not electrically excitable like neurons, but they can be activated and they have receptors and transfer NT
what is microgliosis?
when they get activated and get angry
- Caused by injury in periphery
what are microglia?
function is immune surveillance
what is the function of astrocytes?
blood-brain barrier, neural support
what is an advantage of subjective/objective measures?
subjective: less constraint
objective: more reliable, tighter data
what is a cold pressor test?
The immersion of hand or elbow in cold water (~4C)
- Eventually the limb gets ischemic (low blood supply), which hurts
what is pressure algometry?
press down on a body part and machine keeps track of how much force is exerted
- Keep pressing until person says stop
explain the pain threshold and tolerance study (how many seconds)
pain threshold achieved at 25 sec and pain tolerance was achieved at 80 sec
- Tolerance: raise heat until person says to stop
- Threshold: say “now” when warm becomes painfully hot (threshold is temperature)
what is time a proxy (substitute) for?
It’s an easy way to measure the temperature that researchers think is painful
what is the human heat pain threshold?
43-46 degrees C
- Maybe hypertensives have a slightly lower threshold than control
why do we need to measure something other than threshold and tolerance?
Threshold and tolerance don’t tell you about clinical pain (it’s something we can measure, but not what we want to study)
- Could also be measuring people’s willpower
- Problem with threshold: its very subtle
what is the visual analog scale and why is it better than NRS?
no numbers, but on a spectrum
- Some people say a low number bc they want to make their healthcare provider feel like their treatment worked – they’ll memorize the number and choose a lower one later
what is the faces scale?
used for kids snce they have a hard time understanding descriptors
- Problem: the zero face is smiling (no pain doesn’t mean you’re smiling)
- Should start at neutral
- Another problem: when?
describe the use of the double VAS
Top: intensity
Bottom: unpleasantness
what is the most common pain rating on a scale?
11
- They don’t understand what researchers are asking – it’s far too common
what is causalgia?
type of neuropathic pain after traumatic injury
explain how much things hurt, from most to least (Melzack)
MOST:
- causalgia
- digital amputation
- childbirth
LEAST:
- sprained ankle
explain the FLACC scale for babies
Face
Legs
Activity
Cry
Consolability
who came up with a facial action coding system for pain?
Paul Ekman
what are pain descriptors?
Idea that you can define pain by the words that people use to describe it
explain Ron melzack’s pain descriptors by intensity
Came up with collected adjectives that people use to describe pain (divided into categories)
- Sensory: Temporal, spatial, punctate, incisive (cutting), constrictive (squeezing), traction, thermal, brightness
- Top: ones that were thought to be least intense of the category / bottom: most intense in category
explain the McGill pain questionnaire
- 20 qualitative questions
- PPI: present pain index
- 6 point verbal rating scale
- You pick the one that most describes your pain
- Idea: different types of pain would feature different types of descriptors
- Doesn’t work that well, except with one exception: inflammatory pain is more dull aching, whereas neuropathic pain is more sharp shooting axis
explain the MPQ short form questionnaire
- Instead of picking descriptors, you’re given descriptors
- Takes less time to fill out
- Advantage: shorter appointment times