Saturday, August 22, 2009

definitions of different types of pain

Allodynia:means "other pain" and refers to:
Pain caused by stimuli which are not normally painful

Hyperalgesia:an increased sensitivity to pain, which may be caused by damage to nociceptors or peripheral nerves.
Hyperalgesia is often a component of a neuropathic pain syndrome


Hyperpathia:
An abnormally exaggerated response to a painful stimulus
evere explosive or persistent pain.
Hyperpathia is often a component of a neuropathic pain syndrome

Idiopathic pain:Occurring without a known cause.
is a diagnosis of pain which is suffered by a patient for longer than 6 months, for which there is no physical cause and no specific mental disorder.

Malignant pain:
pain associated with diseases like cancer caused by the tumour affecting the surrounding tissues, most commonly bone tumours. The pain can be either due to the disease itself or due to the treatment given for cancer like surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. The pain needs to be carefully assessed and appropriately treated

Paresthesia:

abnormal skin sensations (as tingling or tickling or itching or burning) with no apparent long-term physical effect, more generally known as the feeling of pins and needles or of a limb being "asleep" and is usually associated with peripheral nerve damage
It is normally experienced in the extremities (hands, arms, legs, or feet), but can also occur in other parts of the body.
The sensation gradually goes away once the pressure on the nerve is relieved.
Chronic paresthesia indicates a problem with the functioning of nerve cells, or neurons or may arise due to direct damage to the nerves themselves, or neuropathy.

Phantom limb pain:
refers to the severe pain and tingling sensation which continue to be experienced from the perceived existence of the limb which has be amputated. It commonly arises in cases where the amputation is delayed after the initial injury. The perceived limb may be felt to be felt to be lying in an abnormal and uncomfortable position. Damage to nerve endings play an important part in this condition with the resulting erroneous regrowth of nerve tissue triggering abnormal and painful discharge of neurones in the stump, and there is often a change in the way that nerves from the amputated limb connect to neurones within the spinal cord.

Psychogenic pain:
is entirely or mostly related to a psychologic disorder where a person has persistent pain with evidence of psychologic disturbances and but no evidence of a disorder that could cause the pain.
It should be noted that it is very rare for pain to be purely psychogenic and more commonly, the pain has a physical cause but the degree of pain is out of proportion with what most people with a similar disorder experience.


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