Conference paper

The pathophysiology of chronic pain

Jadranka Morović-Vergles ; Department for Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology, Clinic for Internal Medicine, Clinical Hospital “Dubrava”, Zagreb, Croatia

Abstract

The International Association for the Study of Pain (ISAP) describes pain as “an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage”. Pain is the sensation that usually arises when noxious stimulus causes real or potential damage to bodily tissue. The neural encoding and further processing elicited by such sti­muli is called nociception. Pain can be essentially divi­ded into two categories: adaptive and maladaptive. Adaptive pain contributes to survival by protecting organism from injury. Contrary, maladaptive pain is an expression of the pathologic operation of nervous system. Chronic pain in humans has been arbitrarily defined as pain las­ting for more than 6 months. It is not only results from prolonged sensitization of nociceptive neurons but also from influence of social and psychological factors.

Keywords

pain; chronic pain; nociceptors; biopsychosocial approach

Hrčak ID:

125344

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/125344

Publication date:

19.10.2007.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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