Structural Analysis of Function Using the Diagnostic Program

Abstract

Pain is not a reaction to specific environmental stimuli, like seeing or hearing, but can originate from all nociceptors in the body in response to a stimulus of adequate intensity. Nociception is nonspecific. The intensity of pain does not correlate with the degree of tissue irritation or injury. Also, as in referred pain, the site where pain is felt often does not correspond to the site where the pain originates. Pain sensation, moreover, is strongly linked to the central processing of pain, i.e., the affective pain response. Thus, pain has much in common with general sensations such as hunger, thirst, fatigue, and fear, which cannot be precisely assigned to a particular body structure. Nevertheless, since pain as a clinical phenomenon is a warning sign of disease or tissue injury, it is important to analyze pain with respect to its causation despite its often vague localization due to referral and subjective processing.