Medical expert of the article
New publications
Nosigenic pain
Last reviewed: 20.11.2021
All iLive content is medically reviewed or fact checked to ensure as much factual accuracy as possible.
We have strict sourcing guidelines and only link to reputable media sites, academic research institutions and, whenever possible, medically peer reviewed studies. Note that the numbers in parentheses ([1], [2], etc.) are clickable links to these studies.
If you feel that any of our content is inaccurate, out-of-date, or otherwise questionable, please select it and press Ctrl + Enter.
Nosigenic pain occurs when skin nociceptors, nociceptors of deep tissues or internal organs become irritated. Emerging in this case, the impulses follow the classical anatomical pathways, reaching the higher parts of the nervous system, are displayed by consciousness and form a sense of pain. Pain in internal organs is a result of rapid contraction, spasm or stretching of smooth muscles, since the smooth muscles themselves are insensitive to heat, cold or dissection. Pain from internal organs that have sympathetic innervation can be felt in certain areas on the surface of the body (the Zakharyin-Ged zone) - this is reflected pain. The most famous examples of such pain are pain in the right shoulder and right side of the neck with gallbladder involvement, pain in the lower back with bladder disease and, finally, pain in the left arm and left side of the chest with heart disease. The neuroanatomical basis of this phenomenon is not entirely clear. A possible explanation is that the segmental innervation of the internal organs is the same as that of the remote areas of the body surface, but this does not explain the reasons for the reflection of pain from the organ to the surface of the body. Nocigenic type of pain is therapeutically sensitive to morphine and other narcotic analgesics.