Pain Perception Research Paper

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Pain Perception: Substance P and Opiate Drugs
Pain is an intricate sensory and emotional experience caused my harmful stimulus that warns your brain of tissue damage. It is complex perception that is experienced by each individual differently. Pain perception involves both the recognition of potential harm and making the brain aware of the potential danger. The brain stem, thalamus and cerebral cortex are all involved with receiving and processing pain signals. Pain is different for each individual because every individual has different pain thresholds and pain stimuli are processed in various ways by the nervous system. Interneurons are processing signals through filtering system that determine if they will get through to the brain, while …show more content…
These receptors bring information to the brain from the body, and the different nerve endings each respond to different pain. Capsaicin, for example, is a chemical that stimulates the receptors that are involved in painful heat. Capsaicin is found in food likes hot peppers and is what causes the stinging or burning sensation experienced on lips, eyes, and other body parts. The pain information arrives relatively slow because the axons that carry the pain information have very little or no myelin. It takes about 2 to 20 meters/second for this process to occur. The thicker and faster axons carry information for sharper pain, while the thinner ones carry information for duller pains. Morphine is able to block pains caused by duller pains like those that are experienced post-surgery. morphine, however, cannot inhibit shaper, more intense pain, such as that experienced during invasive surgeries. It is best to start receiving morphine before surgery so that the brain is not overwhelmed by pain messages. This overwhelming would cause an increase in pain perception and sensitivity of pain nerves along with their receptors. Morphine helps to limit pain from the beginning, and those who take it before surgery do not require as much of it after the surgery is completed. …show more content…
Males and Females, 21-55 years old, were selected to be a part of the study. 23 subjects were used in for opiate dependent group who had received MMT and had received methadone detoxification and who had not used opiates for an extended period of time. 28 subjects were used in control group who had a history of no opiate dependence. Researchers found that abstinent ex opiate abusers had an increased pain threshold in comparison with those who were not ex-opiate abusers, and were less sensitive in regard to the objective measure of the pain threshold. They also had more negative emotional experience of the stimulus than the control group, but recorded the maximum stimulus for pain threshold. According to the study, there was not significant differences between genders in regard to heat or pain threshold, pain intensity, or pain unpleasantness. However, based on the results there were more males than females who were able to tolerate the maximum amount of pain threshold. The article mentioned that most published studies saw that woman had higher level of pain sensitivity in comparison with men. The study did not control for menopausal status, menstrual cycles, or psychosocial factors that can affect in the difference in pain perception for woman. Also the article stated that there was an ever increasing amount of
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