The Perception of Pain :: Senses Medical Essays

The Perception of Pain At some point in life, all people experience pain. The presence of pain can prevent further damage to an injured area or even prevent an injury from occurring, but pain that continues, after treatment or even after healing, can be debilitating (Loeser and Melzack, 1999). Stephani Curtis (1997) presents a case study of a 32-year-old woman, Mrs. J, who injured her lower back when she fell off a horse. As a result of this accident, Mrs. J experienced a ruptured lumbar disc. The treatment, a lumbar laminectomy, failed to alleviate her pain. Due to the pain and the effects of her prescribed medication, Mrs. J was forced to curtail her activities, and she had to quit her job as a truck driver. Psychologists, neurosurgeons, and other health-care professionals research to relieve pain for patients like Mrs. J. This much needed research offers hope for the millions of people whose lives have been disrupted by pain, such as chronic pain, hyperalgesia, and allodynia. While pain has always been present in humans' lives, Loeser and Melzack (1999) report that it is in only the past 30 years that pain research has made advances in both the treatment and the understanding of pain. There are three basic categories of pain: transient, acute, and chronic. Short-term, or transient pain, serves to protect an individual from any lasting damage. Nociceptive transducers activate this beneficial kind of pain in daily life when people stub a toe or get a mild sunburn. People rarely seek medical care to address transient pain symptoms. The pain itself motivates the person to stop the harmful activity to prevent additional pain and damaging injury. When damage does occur to an injured area, nociceptive transducers also activate acute pain, another beneficial type of pain. A broken bone or a tissue-damaging burn are examples of this medium-duration pain. People normally go to the doctor to aid the natural healing of the body and to reduce pain. Acute pain rarely continues for longer than three months; although, continuous acute pain from malignant diseases can last longer. The final category of pain, chronic, presents many challenges to both patients, like Mrs. J, and health-care providers. The pain fails to cease after treatment or even after healing in some cases. The body may be unable to heal as in the amputation of a limb. Pain experienced in the missing limb is known as phantom limb pain (Loeser and Melzack, 1999; Pain Drain, 1999).