Pain and nociception
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(Redirected from Pains)
"Pain" redirects here. For pain in the sense of "suffering", see Suffering. For other uses, see Pain (disambiguation).
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”.
Pain is frequently the result of nociception;[1] activity in the nervous system that results from the stimulation of nociceptors. This activity is carried to the brain, usually via the spinal cord, and conveys information, without conscious awareness, about damage or near-damage in body tissues. Pain is the conscious experience of sensorial information and a feeling of unpleasantness that can manifest as a result of nociception. Neuropathic pain differs from nociceptive pain in that it involves damage to the nerve resulting in the sensation of pain. There is also central pain in which the pain is generated in the brain from some form of lesion, and which is the most difficult for medical professionals to treat. Occasionally pain may be psychogenic, meaning caused by mental illness; however this is exceedingly rare.
As a part of the body's defense system, pain triggers mental and physical behavior that seek to end the painful experience. It is also a feedback system that promotes learning, making repetition of the painful situation less likely. The nociceptive system may transmit signals that trigger the sensation of pain, it is a critical component of the body's ability to react to damaging stimuli and it is part of a rapid-warning relay instructing diverse organs and principally the central nervous system to initiate reactions for minimizing injury.
