Longnecker's Anesthesiology > Part 8. Care of the Chronic Pain Patient >

Chapter 90. Mechanisms of Chronic Pain

Gary J. Brenner, MD, PhD, and Clifford J. Woolf, MD, PhD

Pain Hypersensitivity

Topics Discussed:

allodynia; chronic pain; hyperalgesia; inflammatory pain; neuropathic pain; nociceptive stimulus; nociceptors; pain perception; pain threshold; peripheral sensitization; sensitization.

Excerpt:

"Nociceptive pain is characterized by a clear relationship between stimulus intensity (once threshold has been exceeded) and the response or pain perception until tissue damage occurs. An additional defining feature of this pain is that it abates upon cessation of the noxious stimulus, provided tissue is not damaged. Nociception depends upon high-threshold afferents being activated only by relatively intense stimuli. Nociception is highly adaptive in that it is associated with behaviors and responses that minimize tissue injury. The pain is an early or alarm warning system...."

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