In the article, “Sometimes Pain Is a Puzzle That Can’t Be Solved”, Abigail Zuger, the author, describes her own experiences with pain along with some examples and generalizations about the feeling. She claims that she is “ruled by (her) elbow” and “it is (her) constant companion, whimpering, and tugging at (her) sleeve.” She goes on to say that many people have the same problems, especially when drugs, “like naproxen and ibuprofen” are unhelpful and “might as well be cornflakes.” Finally, she explains how far we have advanced in the medical field, but “ none of (the) knowledge has translated into new treatments,” to help people such as herself.
“Pain” by Diane Ackerman is a story about pain. The author describes how people can withstand pain, and how difficult it is to define pain “which may be sharp, dull, shooting, throbbing, imaginary” (301). Culture and tradition are very important on people lives. Therefore, many of them do incredible things, in Istanbul for example “teenage boys dressed in shiny silk fezzes and silk suits decorated with glitter” (300), or in Bali people “go into trances and pick up red-hot cannonballs from an open fire, than carry them down the road” (298). This is just couple examples of controlling our body.
She proves this by stating the fact that pain can be perceived without it being applied, as in you don’t need to experience the C-fiber stimuli to recognize the sensation of pain. “And it is the sensation itself, not the cause, which is most obviously a mental state.” (Gertler, 304). Gertler’s most obvious
As particular circuits in our brain strengthen through the repetition of a physical or mental activity, they begin to transform that activity into a habit” (34). Carr establishes his idea of neuroplasticity by providing a test performed by neuroscientist, Michael Merzenich. He observed monkeys with damage to the nerves in their fingers. When a portion of the hurt monkeys’ hands were affected, the indication became disordered because of the way their brains and their fingers were being stimulated. Amazingly, the monkeys adjusted the psychological misperception by their selves.
The purpose of my paper is to discuss the history of Congenital Analgesia and its presence in the human body. Congenital Analgesia, also referred to as Congenital Insensitivity to Pain or CIP, is a rare neurological disorder of the nervous system that prevents a person from being able to feel pain. Congenital Analgesia results from the “lack of ion channels that transport sodium across sensory nerves. Without these channels, nerve cells are unable to communicate pain” (Hamzelou, 2015, p. 1). While the body does not respond to extreme changes in temperature or bodily harm and damage, those with Congenital Analgesia can still process normal sensations such as body-to-body contact or joint movement.
Stimuli initiating a nociceptive response vary, but receptors and endogenous defence mechanisms in the periphery interact in a similar manner regardless of the insult. Chemical, mechanical, and thermal receptors, along with leucocytes and macrophages, determine the intensity, location, and duration of noxious events. Noxious stimuli are transduced to the dorsal horn of the spinal cord, where amino acid and peptide transmitters activate second-order neurones. Spinal neurones then transmit signals to the brain. The resultant actions by the individual involve sensory-discriminative, motivational-affective, and modulatory processes in an attempt to limit or stop the painful process.
Warfare in The Great War proved to be an extremely difficult and treacherous to almost anything that had to go through it. The image that lingers most in my mind is of trench warfare and how dangerous it portrayed itself to be. The war tactics used by both sides were considered barbaric compared to the new technology of weapons and vehicles. This resulted in the death of massive amounts of soldiers. The trenches would be filled with piles of dead and wounded soldiers covered in mud and being infected from deep cuts or from different body parts that have been detached from them.
Pain is persistent, unrelenting, and cruel to any individual that allows it to control his or her
Our thoughts can influence how we experience pain. 5)
This may help explain why patients experience PLP. Nurses have an important role in managing pain control because they have more contact with patients who are experiencing pain than any other healthcare professionals. (Fieldsen & Wood, 2011). Several theories emerge to the pathophysiology of phantom limb pain, including cortical reorganization or neuroplasticity (Virani et al, 2014; Hunter, Katz & Davis, 2008; Anwar, 2013; Hill, 1999), Proprioceptive memory theory (Virani et al, 2014), and peripheral theories. (Virani et al, 2014; Anwar, 2013).
This means that the concept of pain is not the same as the concept of being in a certain brain state. Smart also says that statements about sensations cannot necessarily be translated into statements about brain processes, i.e. the two phrases cannot be used inter-changeably because the logic of sensation and brain process is different just like the logic of temperature is different from the logic of mean molecular kinetic energy. But this doesn’t prevent the statements “lightening is electrical discharge”, “temperature is mean molecular kinetic energy” and “sensations are brain processes” from being true. This means that sensations and brain processes are just two different ways to describe the same phenomena and are strictly identical. Here, it is important to explain the term “strictly identical” and distinguish between the concepts of ‘type’ and ‘token’.
There are very fast, involuntary and unconscious reflexes controlled by the spinal level, that are influenced directly by afferent information from joint receptors. These reflexes are coordinatinated between agonist and antagogonist muscles (p17). Sherrington(1906) identified the coordination as the law of reciprocal inhibition: When an agonist contracts, its antagonist automatically
Concept Analysis Paper of Pain Concept analysis combined with theory development is essential in the field of nursing as it leads to the clarification of concepts. This means that the approach establishes similarities and dissimilarities between ideas. As a result, precision is achieved within nursing through clearer definitions of terms. Pain is the concept under analysis, and it is central to the practice of nursing. This concept was selected because it is an experience that is perceived subjectively and it is also hard to quantify.
Many patients have difficulties in defining which response is best for their pain situation. (Spine, 2006) To provide ideal patient care, nurses require applicable information, skilled abilities, and new approaches toward pain assessment to help with control. Assessment information based on all available indications of pain assessment prevents patients from suffering. It is a crucial element in delivering effective pain management.
Identity theory as functionalist view A natural question is how this causal role functionalism can be generalized to other creatures and how can it explained that different brain states in different creatures are able to give rise to mental states: how is this related to their functional roles. Lewis argues that, “[i]f the concept of pain is the concept of a state that occupies a certain causal role, then whatever state does occupy that role is pain” (Lewis, 1980, p. 230). So in normal humans the state of the role of pain may be identified with a given set of neurons firing, let us say C-Fibers firing, but, how about other creatures with different brains?
