Understanding Pain: Classifications and Causes

Introduction

Pain is the most common reason for physician consultation in most developed countries. It is a significant symptom in many medical conditions and can interfere with a person's quality of life and general functioning.

Main Item

Pain is a complex and multifaceted experience that can be classified in various ways based on its duration, origin, and underlying mechanisms. The primary types of pain are:

Psychogenic Pain

Also called psychalgia or somatoform pain is physical pain caused, increased, or prolonged by mental, emotional, or behavioral factors. Headache, back pain, or stomach pain are some of the most common types of psychogenic pain.

Phantom Pain

The pain sensation from a limb or organ that has been lost or from which a person no longer receives physical signals. Phantom limb pain is an experience almost universally reported by amputees and quadriplegics. Phantom pain is neuropathic pain.

Acute Pain

Pain that comes on quickly can be severe but lasts a relatively short period. Unlike chronic pain. Acute pain warns of disease or a threat to the body.

Chronic Pain

Defined as pain that persists longer than the temporal course of natural healing, associated with a particular type of injury or disease process. Chronic pain impairs the ability to direct attention, particularly compared to peers with low intensity or no chronic pain; people with high-intensity chronic pain have significantly reduced ability to perform attention-demanding tasks.

One of the hardest things about chronic pain is that only you know how bad the pain feels. There are no tests that reveal how much you are suffering. Often, no outward signs show how much a person is in pain.

Nociceptive Pain

Pain caused by damage to body tissue, often described as sharp, aching, or throbbing. Subtypes include:

• Somatic Pain: Originates from skin, muscles, joints, connective tissues, and bones.
• Visceral Pain: Originates from internal organs. Harder to localize and often described as deep, squeezing, or cramping.

Examples: Sprained ankle, cuts, burns, and inflammatory conditions like arthritis.

Neuropathic Pain

Pain caused by damage to the nerves or other parts of the nervous system. Often described as shooting, stabbing, or burning. Can cause hypersensitivity to touch and temperature changes. Examples: Sciatica, shingles, diabetic neuropathy, and trigeminal neuralgia.

Radicular Pain

Specific type of neuropathic pain that occurs when a spinal nerve gets compressed or inflamed, radiating from the back and hip into the leg(s). Examples: Sciatica (pain due to the sciatic nerve being affected)

Nociplastic Pain

Pain that arises from altered nociception despite no clear evidence of actual or threatened tissue damage or disease affecting the somatosensory system. Often seen in conditions like fibromyalgia and some types of chronic pain syndromes.

Breakthrough Pain

Sudden and brief flare-ups of pain that occur despite ongoing pain management. For example, cancer pain that breaks through the effects of medication.

Pain Scale Chart: 1 to 10 Levels: Pain scale diagram and chart that includes an explanation of each of the one to ten classified pain levels.