Chronic Quiz: Pain

Acute Pain

The unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with tissue damage that results from acute injury, disease or surgery

Breakthrough pain

Additional pain that “breaks through” the pain being manage by the mainstay analgesic drugs.

Half life

The time it takes for the amount of drug in the body to be reduced by 50%

Neuropathic Pain

The result of abnormal processing of stimuli believed to be associated with damage to or dysfunction of the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) and/or central nervous system (CNS)

Nociceptive pain

The result of actual or potential tissue damage or inflammation, often categorized as being somatic or visceral

Pain

An unpleasant sensory ad emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage. The most reliable indication of pain is the patients self report.

Patient controlled analgesia (PCA)

An interactive method of management that allows patients to treat their pain by self administering doses of analgesics

Persistent pain

also called chronic pain, pain that persists or recur for an indefinite period, usually for more than three months, it often involves deep body structures, is poorly localized and is difficult to describe

Placebo

Any medication or procedure including surgery, that produces an effect in a patient because of its implicit or explicit intent, not because of its specific physical or chemical properties

Cancer Pain

A persistant pain that is the result of a tumor or growth, including nerve compression, invasion of tissue, and/or bone metastasis

Procedural pain

pain associated with medical procedures or surgical interventions. Common in the healthcare setting and is generally acute in nature.

Persistant pain

onset is gradual and the character and quality of the pain often change over time. Serves no biological purpose.

Acute pain

usually temporary, has a sudden onset, and is easily localized.

Persistant pain

patients are able to adapt to this type of pain, vital signs such as pulse and blood pressure may be lower than normal in people with persistent pain.

Nociceptive pain

involves the normal functioning of physiologic systems that process noxious stimuli

Transduction

the first process of nociception and refers to the ways that noxious events activate neurons that exist throughout the body. The initial act of the pain

Transmission

the second process, sending the electric signal to the brain to receive the initial stimuli of the pain

Perception

the third process involved in nociception, the brain processing the stimuli and becoming consciously aware of the pain

localized pain

confined to the site of the origin

Projected pain

diffuse around the site of origin and is not well localized

Referred pain

is felt in an area distant from the site of the painful stimuli

Radiating pain

felt along a specific nerve or nerves