Neuropathic Pain Essay

The other kind of pain is neuropathic, and it affects the nerves. Dr. Day says this is a condition called Complex Regional Pain Syndrome or CRPS. It happens when an injury or illness leaves the nervous system with a malfunction. Many patients describe it as a

Chronic pain is any pain that lasts longer than 3 months (FNLM, 2011). A common type of chronic pain is neuropathic pain which occurs when the nerves themselves are damaged by injury or disease (Veteran Mates, 2013). Neuropathic pain is a complex condition that is often underdiagnosed or undertreated, resulting in negative physical, psychological and social impacts (Veteran Mates, 2013). Therefore early management is critical in order to improve the person’s quality of life and to reduce the chance of the pain becoming persistent (Pain Health, 2015). The following 5 articles relating to the management of neuropathic pain will be annotated, including a summary of the main

Chronic pain can effect nearly every aspect of your life and prevent you from enjoying the activities - and even the people that you once did. It is difficult for people to understand how hard it is to live with chronic pain. Those who deal with daily pain are more likely to become short-tempered and impatient, irritable and down-right cranky - with good reason. Chronic pain wears you down! It drains your energy and can

Neuropathic pain is a type of pain caused by a problem with one or more of the nerves themselves. This causes them to falsely send electrical signals and stimulate pain that may not be there. Symptoms of which can be excruciating pain, pins and needles and numbness, which can cause the patient to become extremely sensitive to even slight pressures in the affected area.

One of the most physically painful days in my entire life was March 10th 2015, it was the day I found out I had appendicitis. That morning I woke up to my lower right side hurting pretty bad and throughout that day it continued to get worse. I wasn’t sure what was wrong at the time and my parents thought it may have been my appendix, so I looked up the symptoms I had on the internet which came up with appendicitis. Needless to say that was absolutely terrifying. After many hours in the Emergency Room, lots of blood work, and a CT scan, I did indeed have appendicitis and would need to have surgery that night.

There are many mechanisms for the sensitisation of nociceptors. A common scenario for this occurrence is when peripheral tissue is subjected to exogenous injury, whether it be mechanical, chemical, or toxic. Injury results in localised increase in inflammatory mediators, leading to the sensitisation of nociceptors. Upregulation and increased expression of various membrane receptors is the most common mechanism. Ionotropic receptors, Gq protein-coupled metabotropic receptors, Gs protein-coupled metabotropic receptors, and mitogen-activated protein kinase have been shown to be upregulated in nociceptors in response to the presence of inflammatory mediators (Sessle ed 2008). The resultant effect is increased conductance, lowered threshold for the initiation of action potentials, spontaneous depolarisation, and increased after-discharges to supra-threshold stimuli (Sessle ed 2008). Sprouting, or the growth of neuronal axons into the damaged tissue, also contributes to pathological pain. Increased number of nociceptive axons increases the opportunity for spatial and temporal summation and activation of nociceptors, which under normal conditions would not be activated. Sufficient concentration of inflammatory mediators can also lead to the activation of nociceptors which do not participate in the detection of noxious stimulus (Sessle ed 2008). With an increased number of nociceptors feeding back to the CNS, the sensation of pain is

Sean Mackey is a M.D, Ph.D, the current Chief of the Division of Pain Medicine, as well as a Redlich professor in several pain and brain related sciences at Stanford. Doctor Mackey leads the research at the Stanford Systems Neuroscience and Pain Laboratory focusing on the dissecting chronic pain and how it effects the nervous system. The SNAPL has also attempted to map out the brain and regions in the spinal cord that understand pain in order to treat these occurrences of chronic pain on a personal level (Stanford Medicine Bio). In order to solve these problems he is mainly explores the effects of different injected drugs, such as Lidocaine, Ondansetron, and Botulinum Toxin, for ameliorating effects or help in linking how different responders

After a car accident last year, I live in chronic pain from my back and neck on an everyday basis. I also suffer from depression that adds on to the pain that I feel. The pain that I felt was very typical these past two weeks. I have my good days and my bad days. The days that I have physical therapy, I usually hurt worse than the days that I don’t have it. I cope with the pain by taking medications and doing yoga. Nevertheless, some days I cannot get out of bed because of my back pain. These are really hard days; however, these days are becoming fewer. My family history when it comes to pain is unhealthy. A vast amount of my family members are addicted to pain medication. My family does not deal with emotions every well and most of them

Is your chronic pain all in your head? In a manner of speaking, it is. Learn how your brain responds to

Capsaicin has been shown to reduce the amount of substance P associated with inflammation- however this is not believed to be its mechanism in pain relief. Capsaicin's mechanism of action is attributed to "defunctionalization" of nociceptor fibers by inducing a topical hypersensitivity reaction on the skin. This alteration in pain mechanisms is due to many of the following: temporary loss of membrane potential, inability to transport neurotrophic factors leading to altered phenotype, and reversible retraction of epidermal and dermal nerve fiber

Pain is the result of the brain’s response to potential tissue damage (Jones & Williams, 2017). The mean prevalence is reported to be 32% of adults aged 25 to 34 and 62% of adults over 75 years of age (Geneen, 2017). The cost associated with pain management in the United Sates (US) is higher than the cost to treat cancer, heart disease, and diabetes (Riskowski, 2014). Moreover, pain is the most common symptoms for which an individual will seek medical care, and the top cause of absence from work in people under 45 years of age (Hardt et al., 2008). Subjects may experience different levels of pain even among individuals with similar

Nerve pain, also known as neuropathy, is damage to the sensory, motor, or automatic nerves, which leads to constant and disruptive physical pain. While the symptoms vary from person to person, they typically include a burning, stabbing, or tingling sensation to extremities, such as the hands or feet. This complex condition currently affects nearly 20 million people in the United States alone.

Nociceptive pain is the pain experienced when the body is damaged by temperature, chemical, or mechanical means. When damage is caused, afferent neurons respond and the four phases of nociception result. Transduction occurs when the free ends of silent nociceptors convert toxic experience into an electrical current, leading to a nerve impulse. The nerve impulse is then transmitted to the dorsal root ganglion in the spinal cord, then the dorsal horn at the base of the brain and on to the brain, where it is recognised as pain. The perception of pain occurs when the electrical impulse leads to release of neurotransmitters from the nociceptor endings in the brain. It is further processed into a more specific sensation such as sharp, dull, aching

Peripheral neuropathy involves damage to the peripheral nervous system which serves as a major communication network for the brain, the spinal cord other parts of the body. Peripheral nerves are responsible for sending sensory information such as “cold feet” back to the brain. It is also responsible for sending signals from the brain and spinal cord to the muscles to elicit movement. There are more than 100 types of peripheral neuropathy and each is classified based on the type of damage on the nerve. Some peripheral neuropathies are due to damage to the myelin sheath which is the fatty protein that coats and insulate the axon. This myelin sheath is important for increasing the speed at which impulses propagate down a myelinated nerve fiber.

There is perhaps no greater joy in life then overcoming an illness you are born with as a child; to finally be able to stop having weekly doctor’s visits and be able to live life like the “normal kids”. But on rare occasion, it becomes a Pyrrhic victory. Having undergone a bone marrow stem cell transplant during which my heart stopped due to a serve allergic reaction, I developed chronic pain from side effects of the transplant. At first, a steady course of Vicodin and morphine made it bearable, but scans showed the devastation it caused to organs in my body such as the liver and kidneys. My doctors gave me the following options: Stop taking the medication and deal with the constant pain or continue with the medication and avoid the pain.