Week 2 - Clinical Pain Neuroscience Flashcards
IASP Pain Terminology:
Formal Definition of Pain
An unpleasant sensory & emotional experience associated w/ actual or potential tissue damage.
IASP Pain Terminology:
Lay Definition of Pain
Danger stimulus/alarm perceived in the brain.
Nociception
The process of detecting danger (via nociceptors) + sending the danger messages to the brain (via nociceptive pathways)
What pathways are involved in pain perception?
Memory, cognition, context, attention, emotion, sensation, + motor
- The brain makes the decision about a threat
Biological factors affecting pain
- Nociceptive input
- Neuropathic input
- Inflammation
- Brain structure & function
Psychological factors affecting pain
- Mood/stress
- Thoughts/beliefs
- Coping strategies
- Behaviours
- Sleep
Social factors affecting pain
- Culture
- Work
- Social support/family
- Finances
What 3 factors in pain driven by?
Signal, amplifier, gain setter
Noxious stimulus
A stimulus that is damaging/threatens damage to normal tissues
Nociceptors
A high-threshold sensory receptor of the peripheral somatosensory nervous system that is capable of transducing + encoding noxious stimuli.
Peripheral sensitisation
Increased responsiveness + reduced threshold of nociceptive neurons in peripheral tissues.
Primary hyperalgesia
Increased pain from a stimulus that normally provokes pain in the area of injury
Neuropathic pain
Caused by a lesion or disease of the somatosensory system, including peripheral neurons + the CNS.
The amplifier:
Nociceptor input can cause biomechanical/molecular changes in synapse function + structure in dorsal horn neurons, leading to amplification of the signal transmission system + pain hypersensitivity
Central sensitisation
Increased responsiveness of nocicpetive transmission neurons in the CNS to their normal/sub-threshold afferent input.
