Pain syndrome

Pain syndrome - an unpleasant, sometimes intolerable, sensation that occurs when irritation (trauma, inflammation) of sensitive nerve endings, embedded in organs and tissues.

Perception of pain is individual for each person. Reaction to pain can be: normal (normeasis); increased (hyperesthesia), which is more often due to psychasthenic conditions or hormonal disorders, for example, with adrenal insufficiency (Addison's disease), thyrotoxicosis; (hypoesthesia), which is caused by the oppression of the painful centers of the cerebral cortex under the influence of various factors - hypoxia, the action of drugs, analgesics, psychotropic drugs, autotoxins, autosuggestion, hypnosis, reflex action, for example, acupuncture, etc. A complete loss of tactile sensitivity.

Pain is the earliest and leading symptom of diseases and injuries. But it is due to stimulation of the receptors of the vegetative part of the sympathetic nervous system that causes a number of protective neurohumoral reactions and, during prolonged exposure, can form a chronic focus of excitation in the cerebral cortex. Thus, pain is a starting point for the development of a complex protective reaction of a vegetative type, accompanied by a disruption of the function of all organs and systems. This determines the essence of the pain syndrome, which is considered as an integrative function of the body, mobilizing the most diverse functional systems to protect the body from the influence of the aggressor factor. It includes such components as consciousness, sensation, memory, motivation, vegetative, somatic and behavioral reactions.

Pain syndrome is accompanied by objective changes affecting a variety of functional systems: breathing, circulation, hormonal, maintenance of statics and homeostasis. Clinical changes in the pain syndrome are diverse and depend not only on the strength and duration of pain irritation determining the activation of the hormonal system and the release of catecholamines into the blood, but also from the general state of the body, the central nervous system, the hormonal system, the cardiovascular system, the state of adaptation mechanisms and emotional status, which determines the perception of pain and the emotional response to it. Patients with a labile nervous system react more actively to pain and give a vivid emotional reaction even to a slight irritation. Very labile in them and the response from the cardiovascular system. Because of the low shock threshold, even a slight painful irritation can cause the development of a painful shock cramp.

But in all cases, the pain syndrome is accompanied by a protective stress reaction. Selye defined them as stress syndromes. There may also develop distress syndromes: respiratory, hypovolemic, hypoxic, shock, etc. Are no longer as protective, but as a consequence of extreme effects on the body.

Vegetative reaction in pain syndrome, clinically, manifests itself: excitation, pallor of the skin, profuse sweating, dilating pupils; tachycardia and rising blood pressure, rapid breathing, frequent, and sometimes involuntary urination and defecation. Even after the cessation of the irritating effect, the pain syndrome is retained for another 12-72 hours. In cases of accumulation of pain impulses above the shock threshold, braking of the cerebral cortex develops with the development of shock syndrome.

[1], [2], [3], [4], [5]