Pathophysiology of Pain Essay

Pain may be subjective, complex or individualized in nature. It may also be fully described on a Likert scale and be characterized as burning, pricking, piercing or cramping. When people are exposed to similar pain stimuli, their reactions tend to differ. Therefore, pain can best be described as an unpleasant emotional or sensory experience that relates to potential damage of tissues and may be acute, chronic or referred pain. This paper discusses the pathophysiology of acute, chronic and referred pain including the similarities and differences that exist between them. A description of how gender and age impact the pathophysiology, diagnosis, and treatment prescription of chronic, acute or referred pain will also be provided. Pathophysiology of Pain Essay.

Pathophysiology of Pain

Pain signals are conveyed through the central nervous system in a process called nociception via either the sensory or afferent pathways. Acute pain is sharp and abrupt and is an indicator of an ailment that has a significant infection within the body. Acute pain is initiated upon the trigger of peripheral receptors in the body and migrates through the spinal cord to the cerebral cortex after which it is interpreted as acute pain (Huether & McCance, 2017).  Chronic pain is continuous despite the healing of an injury that caused the initial pain. The nociceptive transmission has a significant role in the manifestation of chronic pain after transmission to the dorsal horn. Persistence, in this case, is linked to the irreversible damage that occurs in the functional framework of nerve fibers (Huether & McCance, 2017).   In other instances, the persistence of chronic pain often results from the process of healing. Referred pain manifests from different parts of the body of an individual apart from the initial site or stimulus. This means that not only the tissues or part of the body that have experienced injury will experience pain. This can be explained by the fact that pain signals are usually transmitted to the visceral afferent that precedes the sympathetic fibers (Huether & McCance, 2017). The final result is a framework of painful sensations within the neurological system of an individual.

Similarities

First, all the three types of pain have an initiation point which acts as the source trigger of the pain within the CNS system. Another similarity is involvement of the CNS system, whereby, in acute pain, the cerebral cortex is fully involved, in chronic pain the dorsal horn is involved and in referred pain, the visceral afferent of the CNS system is fully involved.Pathophysiology of Pain Essay.  Besides, all the three types of pain are capable of undermining the body’s proper functioning which tends to weaken the immune system (Price & Inyang, 2015).

Differences

            Despite the numerous similarities, the three types of pain also have significant differences. For instance, chronic pain is persistent in nature and can manifest for months or years. In comparison, acute pain is sharp and takes a short duration of hours to a maximum of three days. Besides, the intensity of acute pain is low while that of chronic pain is high. Referred pain is usually acute in nature but might have a low or high intensity (Price & Inyang, 2015).

Besides, the management of acute and chronic pain tends to differ such that, acute pain may resolve on its own while chronic pain cannot. Acute pain can also be managed from primary care settings based on the cause and intensity/degree. On the contrary, chronic pain requires a more comprehensive management approach with specialized care from an advanced perspective in well-equipped resource settings.