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Central mechanisms of pain control: a survey

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Abstract

Pain is a subjective experience reflecting actual, assumed or potential tissue damage, variable in intensity and, in general, localizable in space and in time. It is comprised of not only a sensory/perceptive but also of an emotional/affective and cognitive/conscious component. Though of limited utility, such a characterization has the virtue of drawing attention to the complexity of pain and to the fact that it is a phenomenon which can be monitored from its inception in sensory nerve endings, via the spinal cord and brainstem, to the highest levels of the CNS, the limbic system and cortex. At each level of this hierarchy of processing and integration, mechanisms for its modulation are operative and each level offers the possibility of therapeutic intervention in pain control.

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© 1987 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Millan, M.J. (1987). Central mechanisms of pain control: a survey. In: v. Arnim, T., Maseri, A. (eds) Silent Ischemia. Steinkopff, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-12997-5_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-12997-5_1

  • Publisher Name: Steinkopff, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-662-12999-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-662-12997-5

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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