{"id":481,"date":"2026-06-08T02:29:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T06:29:14","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2026-06-08T02:29:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T06:29:14","slug":"acute-or-chronic-pain?","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c2creset.ondigit.us\/?p=481","title":{"rendered":"Acute or Chronic Pain?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 102, 153);\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\"><strong>Neuroscientists generally classify pain as either: <\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 255);\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\">Acute<\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\"> pain, caused by an injury to the body. It warns of potential damage that requires action by the brain, or<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 255);\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\">Chronic<\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\"> pain, that persists long after the trauma took place or even in the absence of a trauma. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\">We prefer to define <a href=\"?p=494\"><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 255);\">pain<\/span><\/a> as a warning that some condition in the body is causing harm to it. A particular nerve ending is sending a signal via the spinal cord to the thalamus and <a href=\"?p=572\"><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 255);\">hypothalamus<\/span><\/a> in the brain. <br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\">The relay of information involves several neural circuits within the <a href=\"?p=505\"><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 255);\">central nervous system<\/span><\/a> (CNS). The nerves from the <a href=\"?p=571\"><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 255);\">thalamus<\/span><\/a> relay the signal to various areas of the brain&#8217;s <a href=\"?p=498\"><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 255);\">somato-sensory cortex<\/span><\/a> and <a href=\"?p=510\"><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 255);\">limbic<\/span><\/a> system. From there signals go back down <a href=\"?p=507\"><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 255);\">through the spinal cord<\/span><\/a>. The ones to the motor nerves will cause muscle tension.<\/p>\n<p>Thalamic neural impulses descend to the midbrain, from where they <a href=\"?p=188\"><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 255);\">synapse<\/span><\/a> on ascending pathways in the medulla and spinal cord and inhibit <a href=\"?p=507\"><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 255);\">ascending nerve signals<\/span><\/a>. This produces pain relief (analgesia). Relief also comes from the pain-relieving <a href=\"?p=187\"><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 255);\">neurotransmitters<\/span><\/a> called endorphins, etc.<br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\">Pain signals can set off -autonomic- <a href=\"?p=506\"><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 255);\">ANS<\/span><\/a> pathways as they pass through the medulla, causing increased heart rate &amp; blood pressure, rapid breathing and sweating. The reactions depend upon the pain intensity. They can be depressed from the neocortex via various descending pathways. <br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\">The influences of these pathways could be responsible for psychogenic pain (pain perception with no obvious physical cause). Thoughts, emotions and  &#8216;neural circuitry&#8217; can affect both ascending and descending pain pathways. See also &quot;<\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/health.howstuffworks.com\/pain.htm\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\"><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 255);\">How stuff works<\/span><\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\">&quot;.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/userfiles\/image\/2014%20pics\/rumi-pain%20.jpg\" width=\"222\" height=\"85\" alt=\"\" \/>&nbsp; <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><a href=\"?p=482\"><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 255);\"><span style=\"font-size: x-small;\"><strong><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\">read more &#8230;<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Neuroscientists generally classify pain as either: Acute pain, caused by an injury to the body. It warns of potential damage that requires action by the brain, or Chronic pain, that persists long after the trauma took place or even in the absence of a trauma. We prefer to define pain as a warning that some&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1510,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c2creset.ondigit.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c2creset.ondigit.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c2creset.ondigit.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c2creset.ondigit.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c2creset.ondigit.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/c2creset.ondigit.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c2creset.ondigit.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c2creset.ondigit.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c2creset.ondigit.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c2creset.ondigit.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}