Though very painful sensations, a crushed finger and chronic backache feel very different. The way the body responds to pain depends on the nature of that pain.
For example, a sudden (or acute) injury will release pain-suppressing chemicals contained in the body's own immune system. The acute pain of a trauma doesn't usually last.
Equally, although back pain may initially involved a release of these natural chemicals in the body's defence system, chronic back pain does not trigger the same chemical response from the body's immune system.
Pain can be categorised in terms of duration and cause in most cases.
Acute Pain is short-term and Chronic Pain is long-term, at least three months without interruption. Recurrent Pain is a painful episode followed by a pain-free interval that comes and goes over a long period of time. this is also categorised as Chronic Pain.
Acute pain is defined as short-term pain or pain with an easily identifiable cause. Acute pain is the body's warning of present damage to tissue or disease. It is often fast and sharp followed by aching pain. Acute pain is centralised in one area before becoming somewhat spread out. This type of pain responds well to medications.
Chronic Pain is medically defined as pain that has lasted 3 months or longer. This constant or intermittent pain has often outlived its purpose, as it does not help the body to prevent injury. It is often more difficult to treat than acute pain. Expert care is generally necessary to treat any pain that has become chronic.
The experience of physiological pain can be grouped into four categories according to the source and related nociceptors (pain detecting nerves).
Cutaneous pain is caused by injury to the skin or superficial tissues. Cutaneous nociceptors terminate just below the skin, and due to the high concentration of nerve endings, produce a well-defined, localised pain of short duration. Example injuries that produce cutaneous pain include paper cuts, minor (first degree) burns and lacerations.
Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI)
is the terminology for a group
of injuries which affects the muscles,
tendons and nerves of the upper
body mainly - including neck and arms.
There are two main types of RSI:
Named Conditions which include
tenosynovitis, carpal tunnel syndrome,
bursitis, tennis elbow, De Quervain's
Syndrome amongst others
Non-specific pain syndrome (Diffuse
RSI) where raft of symptoms
exist without any specific site of pain.
The most common symptom presentation for RSI includes: general aches and pain, swelling, numbness, tingling, weakness and cramps (which can also occur in lower limbs). RSI is caused by a combination of musculoskeletal overuse and operational repetition, inappropriate posture, repetitive actions linked to insufficient breaks and recovery time. Attendant stress is often a contributing factor, some of which is exacerbated by the condition itself.
Somatic pain originates from ligaments, tendons, bones, blood_vessels and even nerves themselves and are detected with somatic nociceptors. The scarcity of pain receptors in these areas produces a dull, poorly-localised pain of longer duration than cutaneous pain; examples include sprained ankle and broken bones.
Visceral pain originates from body organs. Visceral nociceptors are located within body organs and internal cavities. The even greater scarcity of nociceptors in these areas produces a pain usually more aching and of a longer duration than somatic pain. Visceral pain is extremely difficult to localise, and several injuries to visceral tissue exhibit referred pain, where the sensation is localised to an area completely unrelated to the site of injury. Myocardial ischaemia (the loss of blood flow to a part of the heart muscle tissue) is possibly the best known example of referred pain; the sensation can occur in the upper chest as a restricted feeling, or as an ache in the left shoulder, arm or even hand.
Phantom limb pain is the sensation of pain from a limb that one no longer has or no longer gets physical signals from - an experience almost universally reported by amputees and quadriplegics.
Neuropathic pain ("neuralgia") can occur as a result of injury or disease to the nerve tissue itself. This can disrupt the ability of the sensory nerves to transmit correct information to the thalamus, and hence the brain interprets painful stimuli even though there is no obvious or documented physiologic cause for the pain.
Definitions taken from Wikipedia. View the original article here
