Pain
hidePain, in the sense of physical pain, is a typical sensory experience that may be described as the unpleasant awareness of a noxious stimulus or bodily harm. Individuals experience pain by various daily hurts and aches, and sometimes through more serious injuries or illnesses. For scientific and clinical purposes, pain is defined by the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) as "an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage".
In medicine, pain is considered as highly subjective. A definition that is widely used in nursing was first given as early as 1968 by Margo McCaffery: "Pain is whatever the experiencing person says it is, existing whenever he says it does". Pain of any type is the most common reason for physician consultation in the United States, prompting half of all Americans to seek medical care annually. It is a major symptom in many medical conditions, significantly interfering with a person's quality of life and general functioning. Diagnosis is based on characterizing pain in various ways, according to duration, intensity, type (dull, burning, throbbing or stabbing), source, or location in body. Usually pain stops without treatment or responds to simple measures such as resting or taking an analgesic, and it is then called ‘acute’ pain. But it may also become intractable and develop into a condition called chronic pain, in which pain is no longer considered a symptom but an illness by itself. The study of pain has in recent years attracted many different fields such as pharmacology, neurobiology, nursing, dentistry, physiotherapy, and psychology. Pain medicine is a separate subspecialty figuring under some medical specialties like anesthesiology, physiatry, neurology, and psychiatry.
Pain is part of the body's defense system, triggering a reflex reaction to retract from a painful stimulus, and helps adjust behavior to increase avoidance of that particular harmful situation in the future. Given its significance, physical pain is also linked to various cultural, religious, philosophical, or social issues.
For more information about Pain, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
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News tagged with pain
Dutch researchers develop technology for pain monitoring
Nov 05, 2009 |
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Ten of thousands of patients suffer chronic pain as a result of operations, and this continues even after the wounds caused by the operation have healed. Researchers from the MIRA research institute - the University of Twente’s ...
Plastic surgeons offer microsurgery technique for breast reconstruction, tummy tuck after mastectomy
Nov 05, 2009 |
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Since her teens, Jennifer Jablon had watched family members deal with breast cancer during their 40s, 50s, and 60s. She wondered whether it would be her fate too.
Researchers find yoga may be effective for chronic low back pain
Nov 04, 2009 |
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Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) and Boston Medical Center found that yoga may be more effective than standard treatment for reducing chronic low back pain in minority populations. This study appears ...
Taking NOTES: abdominal surgery without general anesthesia
Nov 03, 2009 |
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A recent review in Faculty of 1000 Medicine Reports, a publication in which clinicians highlight advances in medical practice, suggests regional pain relief could be used during abdominal surgery. In this review, Michael ...
Common Pain Relievers May Dilute Power of Flu Shots
Medicine & Health / Medications
Nov 03, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- With flu vaccination season in full swing, research from the University of Rochester Medical Center cautions that use of many common pain killers - Advil, Tylenol, aspirin - at the time of injection may blunt ...
Obesity significantly increases side effects of stereotactic body radiation therapy in lung cancer patients
Nov 02, 2009 |
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Obesity, not the amount of radiation given, is the greatest factor in whether early-stage lung cancer patients develop chest wall pain after receiving stereotactic body radiation therapy to the chest wall, with obese patients ...
Seeing is relieving: New hope for chronic pain sufferers
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Oct 29, 2009 |
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An f1000 evaluation examines how pain relief improves greatly when the sufferer can actually see the area where the pain is occurring.
Pain thresholds linked to inflammation and sleep problems in arthritis patients
Oct 29, 2009 |
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Despite recent advances in anti-inflammatory therapy, many rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients continue to suffer from pain. Research published in BioMed Central's open access journal, Arthritis Research & Therapy found that i ...
Heart patients running the red light on traffic restrictions
Oct 27, 2009 |
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More than half of patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) don't get any counselling on their ability to drive after angioplasty - and this could be putting lives in danger, Dr. Ravi Bajaj told the 2009 Canadian Cardiovascular ...
Drug used for neuropathic pain relieves discomfort from abdominal adhesions
Oct 26, 2009 |
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Pregabalin, FDA-approved for neuropathic pain (pain caused by shingles and peripheral neuropathy), effectively reduced abdominal pain and improved sleep in women with adhesions, according to a Henry Ford study.
The pain of torture can make the innocent seem guilty
Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry
Oct 26, 2009 |
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The rationale behind torture is that pain will make the guilty confess, but a new study by researchers at Harvard University finds that the pain of torture can make even the innocent seem guilty.
Angina in the legs? Time to alert patients and physicians
Oct 26, 2009 |
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Edmonton researchers recommend that people over age 40 be screened for peripheral artery disease (PAD), which puts people at high risk for serious medical complications including heart disease, stroke, and possible lower ...
Nanowire biocompatibility in the brain: So far so good
Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine
Oct 22, 2009 |
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The biological safety of nanotechnology, in other words, how the body reacts to nanoparticles, is a hot topic. Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have managed for the first time to carry out successful experiments involving ...
Study: HPV vaccine hurts less than expected
Medicine & Health / Medications
Oct 21, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Injections of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine appear to be no more painful than other shots that prevent disease, according to a new study by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel ...
Damaging inflammatory response could hinder spinal cord repair
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Oct 21, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- The inflammatory response following a spinal cord injury appears to be set up to cause extra tissue damage instead of promoting healing, new research suggests.
