Pain/sleep Flashcards
Transduction
Conversion of stimulus into electrical energy
Hammer hitting finger
Transmission
Sending of impulse across a sensory pain nerve fiber (nociceptor)
Impulse from finger-> spinal cord -> brain
Perception
The patient’s experience of pain
Modulation
Inhibition of pain/ release of inhibitory neurotransmitters
Neurons in brain to reduce pain
Effects of Pain
physiological
acute vs chronic
- Acute pain-BP goes up, HR goes up, pupils dilate, GI slows down, fight or flight response
- Chronic pain-look at vital signs, but may not be affected bc this pain is now their new normal
Effects of Pain
behavioral
bracing, guarding, changes in activity level, people may adapt to the pain
Effects of Pain
Psychosocial
anxiety, insomnia, depression
Misconceptions about Pain
pts/family
•HCP/ nurse will know when I’m in pain, they will address it, so I don’t have to
•If I take something for pain im going to get addicted to it
-Less than 1% of ind that take the med for the right reason get addicted
-Addicted means they are taking the med for something other than what it was prescribed for, to get high etc
-If I take pain meds I wont have any pain at all-is only supposed to make it easier to do daily things
Misconceptions about Pain
Health Care Providers
Sleeping pt isn’t in pain
-It is a coping mechanism for pain, so wake them up and give them the med
•Older adults are naturally in pain
•Pts may get addicted
•They think they are the experts of the pain
Considerations for the Older Adult: sleep
•Changes in sleep cycling
- REM cycles shorten
- Decrease in Stages 3 & 4-decrease in length, going through cycles quicker
- Frequent waking, longer to fall asleep
- Chronic illness
- Pain
- CNS changes-hypothalamus is smaller, so doesn’t excrete the wakefulness hormone
- need 6-8 hours of sleep
- usually need naps because their sleep cycle at night is interrupted
- insomnia is NOT normal
Apraxia
-a neurological disorder characterized by the inability to perform learned (familiar) movements on command, even though the command is understood and there is a willingness to perform the movement
Aphasia
loss of ability to understand or express speech, caused by brain damage
Anomia
a form of aphasia in which the patient is unable to recall/repeat words, but can still comprehend them
agnosia
the inability to process sensory information. Often there is a loss of ability to recognize objects, persons, sounds, shapes, or smells while the specific sense is not defective nor is there any significant memory loss
Frontal lobe impairment
issues with judgement, concentration, learn, solve problem, reaction time decreases
