What is pain?

Question 1

Alongside biological factors, what else contributes to pain?

Answer 1

-Psychological and Social factors

Question 2

What is nociception ?

Answer 2

• Stimulation of sensory nerve cells called nociceptors
  produces a signal that travels along a chain of nerve fibres via the
  spinal cord to the brain:
  1. intense chemical (e.g., chilli powder),
  2. mechanical (e.g., cutting, crushing),
  3. thermal (heat and cold)

Question 3

What are some key differences between pain and nocieption?

Answer 3

• Pain is felt nocieption is never felt is occurs
• We fear pain we can never fear nocicpetion
• Painful stimulus triggers pain, noxious stimulus triggers nociceptors

Question 4

Pain depends on the balance of…

Answer 4

• Danger and safety
  > More than
  credible evidence of danger that there is credible
  evidence of safety.

Question 5

What is the gate theory of pain?

Answer 5

• Spinal cord a ‘gate mechanism’ that determines the degree to which pain signals are transmitted to the brain. - When the gate is wide open, more pain signals get through than when it is closed.
• Generally,
  gate is open to varying
  degrees.

Question 6

How do individuals learn the concept of pain?
What is pain influenced by?

Answer 6

• Through their life experiences
  > Pain is influenced by the context of
  biological, social and psychological factors.

Question 7

The best method of assessing someone’s pain is …

Answer 7

-Pain is subjective so as them to tell you about it.
> Visual analogue for pain.. On a scale of 0-10, where 0 is no pain and 10 is the worst pain
possible

Question 8

Is pain an adaptive role?

Answer 8

• Yes
  > unpleasant feeling that is felt somewhere in the body and urges
  us to protect that bodily location
  » only protective mechanism we are necessarily aware of and
  compels us to do something to protect the painful bit

Question 9

When is pain a problem?

Answer 9

• Pain can be unhelpful so called maladaptive:
  > It tends to persist longer than the time of normal tissue healing, and it
  tends to be out of proportion to the tissue damage that was first
  associated with the onset of the pain.
  pain = chronic = no longer helpful

Question 10

How can some individuals express their pain?

Answer 10

• Some may express verbally, almost all express physically.