The concept of pain essay

According to the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) pain is a negative sensory or emotional experience associated with real or potential tissue damage. Pain reaction consists of several components including the emotional (motivational), sensitive (depressing) and cognitive (evaluative) (Karp et al., 2008, p. 112). A fundamental aspect of the problem of pain is its division into two types: acute and chronic.

Acute pain is a sensory response with the subsequent inclusion of emotional and motivational vegetative and other factors to violation of the integrity of the body (Karp et al., 2008, p. 113). The development of acute pain is usually associated with well-defined painful stimuli of superficial or deep tissues, skeletal muscles and internal organs, as well as smooth muscles dysfunction. Duration of acute pain is determined by the time of recovery of damaged tissues.
In turn, chronic pain is pain that has “torn apart” from the underlying disease and acquired supra-organic nature. International Association for the Study of Pain considers chronic pain as pain that lasts beyond the normal healing period (Barker and McCracken, 2013). In contrast to acute pain, the dominating mechanisms of formation and perception of chronic pain are the cerebral systems, where, of course, a leading role is played by integrative non-specific brain systems (Karp et al., 2008, p. 114). Clinical manifestations of chronic pain and its physiological correlates are to a large extent determined by the psychological characteristics of the individual, one’s personality, and influence of emotional, cognitive, social, and cultural factors.