Pain Attention
A Closer Look into Pain Management
Home | Living With Pain | Pain Experience

Living With Pain

Pain Experience

Pain is a conscious experience, and interpretation of nociceptive input is influenced by memories as well as emotional, pathological, genetic, and cognitive factors. Resultant pain is not necessarily related linearly to the nociceptive drive or input; neither is it solely for vital protective functions. This is especially true in the chronic pain state. Furthermore, the behavioral response by a subject to a painful event is modified according to what is appropriate or possible in any particular situation. Pain is, therefore, a highly subjective experience, as illustrated by the definition given from the International Association for the Study of Pain.1

Pain multidimensional perceptions

Pain can be described as a complex multidimensional experience that includes sensory-discriminative, affective-motivational, and cognitive-evaluative components.

Pain multidimensionality integrates:

1

The somatosensory perception of the noxious object/event’s features (such as location, temperature, and pressure)

2

The encoding, within emotional and motivational circuits, of negative affect and the drive to halt the unpleasant percept

3

An evaluation and modulation of pain experience by cognitive circuits.2

These three categories of activity are assumed to interact with one another to provide perceptual information on the location, magnitude, and spatiotemporal properties of the noxious stimuli, motivational tendency toward escape or attack, and cognitive information based on past experience and probability of outcome of different response strategies.3

Overall, pain is a multidimensional phenomenon with sensory, physiological, cognitive, affective, behavioural and spiritual components. 4

Emotions (affective component), behavioural responses to pain (behavioural component), beliefs, attitudes, spiritual and cultural attitudes about pain and pain control (cognitive component) all alter the way that pain is experienced (sensory component) by modifying the transmission of noxious (unpleasant) stimuli to the brain (physiological component) (Figure.1). 4

pain-dimensions-schema

Adapted figure from fig 1 in (3). Diagram showing the many dimensions of pain modifying the transmission of noxious stimuli to the brain.

MC-I305-06-2024
Data preparation: January 2024

  1. Tracey I. Neuron 2007 Aug 2;55(3):377-91
  2. Lindsay M. Sci Transl Med. 2021 Nov 10;13(619):eabj7360.
  3. Katz J. Surg Clin North Am. 1999 Apr; 79(2):231-52
  4. Vakili R. International Pediatrics. 2015. 361-373

 

 

Related contents:

Impact Of Pain

Read More

Types Of Pain

Read More