PSY 605 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Nociceptor, Somatic Nervous System, Nociception
30 May 2018
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• What is Pain?
• On test * over 18% of Canadians suffer from some type of severe chronic pain
• An unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential
damage, or described in terms of such damage
• Sometimes thought of as a form of stress (Turk et al., 1983)
• Is protective despite being unpleasant
• Neurologist deals with the source of pain
• Pain is associated with the nervous system
• Pain is really a type of stressor
• Pain is for the most part is helpful because it helps you to respond to potential damage or
stress to your body
• Different Types of Pain
• Malignant versus benign
• Acute versus chronic
• Chronic intermittent pain
• Chronic intractable benign pain
• Chronic progressive pain
• Prechronic pain
• Organic versus psychogenic
• Referred pain
• The underlying condition is injurious (malignant)
• Benign means the underlying pain is not harmful (eg migraines are severely painful,
however they are benign)
• Back pain can also be benign, not always but sometimes you might experience tightness
• Acute pain is experienced when you are hurt, its signals the person to avoid further injury
• Acute pain is usually experienced for less than 6 months
• However chronic pain is experienced for months or even years, sometimes chronic pain the
cause or disease cannot be found
• Chronic pain is not usually adaptive, and can actually be debilitating and can lead to social
withdrawal and depression
• There is chronic intermittent pain, menstrual cramps- all examples of chronic pain
• Progressive pain is increasingly intensive pain
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