| A | B |
|---|
| acute pain | discomfort that has a short duration (from a few seconds to less than 6 months) and is associated with tissue trauma, including surgery, or some other recent identifiable etiology |
| addiction | repetitive pattern of drug seeking and drug use to satisfy a craving for a drug's mind-altering or mood-altering effects |
| adjuvant drugs | medications that are co-administered when treating pain (e.g. improving analgesic effect without increasing dosage, controlling concurrent symptoms, moderating side effects) |
| allodynia | exaggerated pain response due to increased sensitivity to stimuli such as air currents, pressure of clothing, vibration |
| analgesic | substance that interferes with pain perception |
| breakthrough pain | acute pain that occasionally develops in those who have chronic pain |
| chronic pain | discomfort that lasts longer than 6 months |
| endogenous opiates | natural morphine-like substances that modulate pain transmission by blocking receptors for substance P |
| equianalgesic dose | oral dose that provides the same level of pain relief as when the drug is given by a parenteral route |
| hyperalgesia | amplified pain experience |
| intractable pain | pain that does not respond to analgesic medications, noninvasive measures, or nursing management |
| modulation | phase of pain impulse transmission during which the brain ineracts with the spinal nerves to alter the pain experience by releasing pain-inhibiting neurochemicals |
| neuropathic pain | discomfort that is processed abnormally by the nervous system as a result of damage to either the pain pathways in peripheral nerves or pain processing centers in the brain |
| nociceptive pain | discomfort that arises from noxious stimuli that are transmitted from the point of cellular injury to the cerebral cortex of the brain |
| nociceptors | specialized pain receptors located in the free nerve endings of peripheral sensory nerves |
| pain | privately experienced, unpleasant sensation usually associated with disease or injury - it's whatever the patient says it is, whenever the patient says it is, and whereever the patient says it is |
| pain management | techniques used to prevent, reduce, or relieve discomfort |
| pain threshold | point at which pain-transmitting neurochemicals reach the brain, causing conscious awareness of discomfort |
| pain tolerance | amount of discomfort a person endures once the pain threshold has been reached |
| perception | phase of pain impulse transmission during which the brain experiences pain at a conscious level, helps to discriminate the location of the pain, determines its intensity, attaches meaninfulness to the event, and provokes emitional responses |
| physical dependence | condition in which a person experiences physical discomfort when a drug that he or she has taken routinely is abruptly discontinued |
| referred pain | discomfort that is perceived in a general area of the body, but not in the exact site where a diseased organ is anatomically located |
| somatic pain | pain that arises from mechanical, chemical, thermal, or electrical injuries or disorders affecting bones, joints, muscles, skin, or other structures composed of connective tissue |
| tolerance | condition in which a client needs larger doses of a drug to achieve the same effect as when the drug was first administered |
| transduction | phase of pain transmission involving the conversion of chemical information in the cellular environment to electrical impulses that move toward the spinal cord |
| transmission | phase of pain transmission during which periperal nerve fibers form synapses with neurons within the spinal cord and the apin impulses move from the spinal cord to sequentially higher levels in the brain |
| visceral pain | discomfort that arises from diseased or injured internal organs |
| withdrawal symptoms | physical discomfort that follows when a person abruptly discontinues use of a drug taken routinely for some time |
