pain:
An unpleasant sensory and emotional experience, caused by actual or possible tissue injury.
Definitions: P to Z
pain threshold:
The smallest amount of pain that is able to be percieved. This may vary by factors in the environment, as well as the individual.
pain tolerance:
The most pain a subject is willing to tolerate.
paresthesia:
An abnormal sensation (not an unpleaseant one, which would be dysesthesia). Tingling after hitting your 'funny bone' would be a paresthesia if it is not painful to you, but a dysesthesia if it is.
peripheral nervous system:
The portions of the nervous system that are outside of the brain and spinal cord. For example, the nerves bringing sensation to your toes.
phantom pain:
Pain that is felt in a limb which has been amputated. It tends to resolve in amputation patients (where it is very common), although some people may have persistant pain.
polyneuropathy:
PA neuropathy involving multiple nerves. An example is diabetic neuropathy, where all the nerves to a foot (for example) may be effected.
referred pain:
Pain that is felt in areas other that those being exposed to potentially damaging stimuli. The most common example of this is the pain in the arm and neck someone may feel during a heart attack.
sensitization:
A nerve or receptor can be made to respond more intensely to a stimulus, or respond to a stimulation it would normally ignore, in certain circumstances. This is being 'sensitized'.
spinal cord stimulator:
A device implanted in the body that electrically stimulates portions of the spinal cord. It typically produces a tingling sensation to replace a painful sensation in a portion of the body.
suffering:
The 'emotional' component to pain. It may be present to varying degrees, and can be far 'worse' than the nociceptive component.
tabetic pain:
Also called 'lancinating', it is a lightning type of pain. The name is from its occurance in tabes dorsalis, a complication of syphilis.
threshold stimulus:
The lowest stimulus measured that produces a sensation.
