NURS 201 Lecture Notes - Neuropathic Pain, Nociceptor, Visceral Pain
28 Apr 2013
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Document Summary
Pain is defined as whatever the person experiencing the pain says it is, existing whenever the person says it does. Untreated pain can result in unnecessary suffering, physical and psychosocial dysfunction, impaired recovery from acute illness and surgery, immunosuppression, and sleep disturbances. The emotional distress of pain can cause suffering, which is defined as the state of severe distress associated with events that threaten the intactness of the person. Culture also affects the experience of pain, specifically the pain expression, medication use, and pain-related beliefs and coping. Pain is most commonly categorized as nociceptive or neuropathic based on underlying pathology or as acute or chronic. Nociception is the physiologic process by which information about tissue damage is communicated to the central nervous system. Nociception involves transduction, transmission, perception, and modulation: transduction is the conversion of a mechanical, thermal, or chemical stimulus into a neuronal action potential.
