Free Health Dissertations - Thus Pain Is An Important Part Of Human Existence And Is A Strong Defense Of
Thus pain is an important part of human existence and is a strong defense of the body helping in organism’s survival. It is because we perceive pain as unpleasant that we tend to avoid harm and injury to the body. The study, treatment and management of pain include pharmacology, psychology and neurobiology and the subjective psychological aspects of pain is an important part of study for the search for neural correlates of consciousness.
Pain receptors are usually free nerve endings and are receptors to chemical, mechanical and thermal pain sensation usually found in the skin, internal and joint surfaces. Tissue damage in deeper part of the skin produces an aching dull pain spread across wider areas as pain receptors are fewer and spread around in deeper levels of the skin, so pain can also not be localized in these cases (Walsh, 1957). In certain cases with prolong pain stimulation, excitation of pain fibers increases leading to a condition known as hyperalgesia.
Pain can be classified into several types including Acute pain which is a short term pain from an identifiable cause and is related to tissue damage or a disease. It is sharp sensation followed by aching and is usually centralized to one area usually following an injury, wound or fall (Gleberzon, 2005). This sort of pain is usually treated with medications. Medically a chronic pain lasts six months or longer and this sort of pain does not help the body to prevent any further injury by being constantly present and is even more difficult to treat than acute pain. Medical advice is however sought for these cases and drug tolerance, chemical dependency and psychological addiction to drugs may also occur especially in case of opioids. The experience of physiological pain can be cutaneous, somatic, visceral or neuropathic. Cutaneous pain is referred to pain that happens due to injury to the skin or the superficial tissues of the body as cutaneous nociceptors terminate just below the skin and produce localized defined pain for short duration and include pain due to cuts and burns. Somatic pain is pain of ligaments, muscles, bones, tendons and blood vessels and may be dull and continue for longer duration than cutaneous pain. Sprained ankles, fractures and torn ligaments are examples of this sort of pain. Visceral pain involve pain originating in body organs and this sort of pain is located in internal cavities and organs producing an aching , poorly localized sensation that may be of much longer duration than somatic pain and the dull pain can spread to many areas.
