Pain Physiology Flashcards
Noxious Stimulus
stimulus that actually is or is potentially damaging to tissue, one of intensity/quality to stimulate nociceptors
Nociception
neural process of encoding noxious stimuli
o Involves nociceptor stimulation, pain not implied
o Consequences may be anatomic or behavioral
o Ex: withdrawal reflex, increase in ABP with surgical stimulation
Pain
Unpleasant sensory, emotional experience assoc with or resembling that assoc with actual or potential tissue damage
o Nociceptor stimulation not required
o Requires conscious
Features of Pain Experience
o Experience defies precise anatomic, physiologic, pharmacologic definition
o Can be experienced in absence of obvious external noxious stimulus
o Modified by behavioral experiences
o Often consequence of nociceptive activity but not always
o Inability to communicate in no way negates possibility that individual is experiencing pain +/- in need of appropriate pain-relieving tx
Acute Pain
largely occurs IRT tissue damage, nociceptive/physiologic pain
o Usually assoc with tissue damage or threat of tissue damage
o Protective role: healing, tissue repair
Features of Acute Pain
Alters behavior to avoid/minimize damage, optimize healing conditions
o Localized, transient – ex healing post op from surgery
o Stimulus activates high-threshold sensory nerve fibers
Chronic Pain
pathologic pain, >3mo (LJ)
o Persists beyond expected course of healing – usually assoc with chronic inflammation, degenerative dz, following nerve injury/damage
o Little to no protective value, no biological valve
Consequences of Chronic Pain
o Typically intense, unrelenting
o Induces biochemical, phenotypical changes in nervous system (peripheral, central sensitization) that escalate, alter sensory inputs
Results in physiologic, metabolic, immunologic alterations – threatens homeostasis
Contributes to illness/death
o Difficult to treat, significant impact on QOL
Breakthrough Pain
o Acute exacerbations of chronic state
Acute on Chronic Pain
o Independent arrival of new pain states
Pownall et al 2021 (Vet Surg)
40% of dogs had a Helsinki Chronic Pain Index >12, consistent with chronic post surgical pain regardless of preemptive analgesia
Voscopoulos, Lema
transition from acute to chronic pain occurs in discrete steps, initiated by presence of persistent and intense stimuli
What is true about populations vulnerable to developing chronic pain conditions?
Previous pain: predict future pain development
Study in neonatal pigs: in utero stress immediate behavioral responses to piglets at tail docking
Inflammatory Pain
o Normally contributes to acute postoperative pain
o Rapid onset
o Intensity, duration related to severity, duration of tissue damage
Typically reversible
Can persist if noxious insult was severe or focus of irritation ongoing
MOA Inflammatory Pain
Increases in substance P, calcitonin gene related peptide (CGRP), protein kinase (Cy), and substance P receptor reported in spinal cord
Neuropathic Pain
o Pain that develops following injury to peripheral nerves or CNS
o Causes many changes in spinal cord, brainstem and brain as damaged nerves fire spontaneously
Develop hyper-responsiveness to both inflammatory, normally innocuous stimuli
Ex: phantom limb pain
MOA Neuropathic Pain
Significant decreases in substance P, CGRP; increases in galanin, neuropeptide Y in primary afferent neurons, spinal cord
Cancer Pain
o Often displays inflammatory + neuropathic pain
o No detectable changes in markers that are changed in neuropathic/inflammatory pain
Adaptive Pain
o Biological function
o Nociceptive/inflammatory pain
Pain from actual or threatened damage to non-neural tissue
MOA: activation of nociceptors
o Same as physiologic pain?
Maladaptive Pain
o No biological function
o Neuropathic vs functional
Neuropathic: caused by lesion or decrease of somatosensory NS
Functional: physically normal NS
Four Physiological Processes of Pain
- Transduction
- Transmission
- Modulation
- Projection/Perception
Mediators of Transduction
Sensory nerve endings, nociceptors
Nociceptors encode intensity, duration, location, quality of stimulus
Generator Potential
membrane depolarization resulting from transduction event
* RMP: -50 to -75mV
* AP threshold: -35mV
* Passively propagated to AP initiation site with high concentrations of NaV channels
* Degree to which nociceptive stimulus propagated depends on balance btw excitatory, inhibitory signals
Transduction
Activation of high-threshold transducers located in distal terminalis of afferent sensory nerve fibers by noxious stimulus – thermal, mechanical, chemical, or electrical