[The pathophysiology of chronic pain].
The International Association for the Study of Pain (ISAP) describes pain as "an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage". Pain is the sensation that usually arises when noxious stimulus causes real or potential damage to bodily tissue. The neural encoding and further processing elicited by such stimuli is called nociception. Pain can be essentially divided into two categories: adaptive and maladaptive. Adaptive pain contributes to survival by protecting organism from injury. Contrary, maladaptive pain is an expression of the pathologic operation of nervous system. Chronic pain in humans has been arbitrarily defined as pain lasting for more than 6 months. It is not only results from prolonged sensitization of nociceptive neurons but also from influence of social and psychological factors.
Morović-Vergles
Jadranka
J
Zavod za kIinicku imunologiju i reumatologiju, Klinika za unutarnje bolesti, Klinicka bolnica "Dubrava", Avenija G. Suska 6, 1 0000 Zagreb.
D002908:Chronic Disease; D006801:Humans; D010146:Pain / Q000503:physiopathology*