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Causes of pain
Medical expert of the article
Last reviewed: 04.07.2025
Causes of pain
A significant number of works, including monographs, are devoted to the study of the causes and pathogenesis of pain and pain syndromes. As a scientific phenomenon, pain has been studied for over a hundred years.
A distinction is made between physiological and pathological pain.
Physiological pain occurs at the moment of perception of sensations by pain receptors, it is characterized by a short duration and is directly dependent on the strength and duration of the damaging factor. The behavioral reaction in this case interrupts the connection with the source of damage.
Pathological pain can arise both in receptors and in nerve fibers; it is associated with long-term healing and is more destructive due to the potential threat of disruption of the normal psychological and social existence of the individual; the behavioral reaction in this case is the appearance of anxiety, depression, oppression, which aggravates somatic pathology. Examples of pathological pain: pain in the focus of inflammation, neuropathic pain, deafferentation pain, central pain. Each type of pathological pain has clinical features that allow us to recognize its causes, mechanisms and localization.
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