Definition
A variant of nociceptive pain (pain resulting from ongoing activation of primary afferent neurons by noxious stimuli), epicritic pain is transmitted to the spinal cord by A Delta (δ) fibers. These fibers are sparsely myelinated, large-diameter, and fast-conducting, which transmit sharp, well-localized pain. A δ fibers are mostly sensitive to mechanical and thermal stimuli. Epicritic pain is less responsive to opioid therapy than is protopathic pain.
Cross-References
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References and Readings
McCaffery, M., & Pasero, C. (1999). Pain clinical manual (2nd ed.). St. Louis: Mosby.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature
About this entry
Cite this entry
Donnelly, K. (2018). Epicritic Pain. In: Kreutzer, J.S., DeLuca, J., Caplan, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Clinical Neuropsychology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57111-9_728
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57111-9_728
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-57110-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-57111-9
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences