Pain Flashcards
5 examples of relevance for pain……GO
- Approx 10 million brits suffer pain- affecting their quality of life - causing them to have more days of work (British pain society, 2014)
- 8 Million people have chronic pain of at least moderate intensity.
- 6-8% of the population have severe pain that prevents some or most of their daily activities.
- It is a warning system telling us that something isn’t right
- The prevalence of pain doubles after the age of 65 but chronic pain can be experienced by anyone.
What is chronic pain?
- This is a persistent pain which continues after healing or is the result of ongoing damage.
- Chronic pain Is recognised as a long term condition in its own right.
What is acute pain?
- This relates to pain occurring during tissue damage and repair for example during sudden illness, surgery, trauma and burns 🥵.
- The pain typically improves with tissue healing.
What are the 5 types of pain?
1- Cutaneous pain - originates from the skin
2- Somatic pain - generated from deeper connective tissue - muscle, tendons and joints
3- Visceral pain - from internal organs
4- Referred pain - `perceived in an area away from the site of origin.
5- Neuropathic pain - resulting from the damage to i nerves or nerve endings.
What are the 3 classic physiological causes of pain?
1- Nociception- Pain caused by actual or potential injury
2- Inflammatory pain - Caused by the inflammatory process
3- Neuropathic pain - Caused by damage to nerves.
What are the 5 stages of nociceptive pain?
1- Transduction 2- Conduction 3- Transmission 4- Modulation 5- Perception
What is the nervous system comprised off?
Central= Brain and spinal cord Peripheral = Sensory ( afferent nerves) Motor = Efferent nerves
What do dendrites do in a neurone?
They percieve information from the body.
What does the cell body (stoma) do in a neurone?
Organises information.
What doors the axon do in the neurone?
It transmits information to other parts of the nervous system.
What is the space between 2 nerves meeting called?
Synapse
Pain is detected by specialised nerve endings what are these called?
- Nociceptors
- These are highly specialised primary sensory neurones mainly located in the skin, joints and walls of organs.
How do nociceptors work?
- They contain specialised protein receptors within their membrane.
- Once stimulated by noxious stimuli
- The protein receptors re- shape to create ion channels causing ions to flow through.
- This stimulates an action potential
- these nerve endings convert noxious stimuli into an electrical current (action potential)
What do mechanoreceptors do?
They respond to pinch and prick pain sensation
What do silent nociceptors do?
They respond to inflammation.
What does Polymodal mechanoheat do?
These are nociceptors that respond to heat and cold
Stage 1 of pain
What is TRANSDUCTION?
- A process where noxious stimuli are translated into electrical activity.
- It occurs at the sensory endings of nerves
- It refers to how the noxious (pain) stimuli causes the release of chemical mediators from damaged cells to cause an action potential
What are Free Nerve Endings (FNE)?
- These are afferent nerve endings meaning it brings info from the bodies periphery towards the brain.
- In the case of pain FNE are called nociceptors
- They function as cutaneous receptors and are essentially used to detect pain