pain

Also known as ache

Pain is a distressing sensation often caused by intense or damaging stimuli. The International Association for the Study of Pain defines pain as "an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with, or resembling that associated with, actual or potential tissue damage."

AI overview

Pain is an unpleasant sensation that your body produces in response to harmful or potentially harmful stimuli, involving both physical sensations and emotional reactions. Understanding pain matters because it's a complex experience that affects how people function and respond to injury or illness.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Key facts

Medical condition.image: Wrist pain.jpg
Medical condition.caption: An illustration of wrist pain
Medical condition.specialty: NeurologyPain medicine
Medical condition.symptoms: Unpleasant sensory and emotional sensations
Medical condition.duration: Typically depends on the cause
Medical condition.types: Physical, psychological, psychogenic
Medical condition.medication: Analgesics

via Wikipedia infobox

Research

1,206,906 papers

Assessment of Chronic Pain: Domains, Methods, and Mechanisms.ReviewThe journal of pain · 2016Fillingim RB, Loeser JD, Baron R et al.DOI: 10.1016/j.jpain.2015.08.010
Measures of adult pain: Visual Analog Scale for Pain (VAS Pain), Numeric Rating Scale for Pain (NRS Pain), McGill Pain Questionnaire (MPQ), Short-Form McGill Pain Questionnaire (SF-MPQ), Chronic Pain Grade Scale (CPGS), Short Form-36 Bodily Pain Scale (SF-36 BPS), and Measure of Intermittent and Constant Osteoarthritis Pain (ICOAP).ReviewArthritis care & research · 2011Hawker GA, Mian S, Kendzerska T et al.DOI: 10.1002/acr.20543
Individual differences in pain: understanding the mosaic that makes pain personal.ReviewPain · 2017Fillingim RBDOI: 10.1097/j.pain.0000000000000775
Pain Assessment.ReviewThe Nursing clinics of North America · 2025Furstein JDOI: 10.1016/j.cnur.2025.01.009
Chronic Pain: Where the Body Meets the Brain.ReviewTransactions of the American Clinical and Climatological Association · 2015Crofford LJ
[Chronic Pain: Definition/Conception/Classification of Pain].Brain and nerve = Shinkei kenkyu no shinpo · 2023Ushida TDOI: 10.11477/mf.1416202309
The contemporary management of neck pain in adults.ReviewPain management · 2021Fandim JV, Nitzsche R, Michaleff ZA et al.DOI: 10.2217/pmt-2020-0046
The validity of pain intensity measures: what do the NRS, VAS, VRS, and FPS-R measure?Scandinavian journal of pain · 2018Thong ISK, Jensen MP, Miró J et al.DOI: 10.1515/sjpain-2018-0012

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Wikidata facts

Image: OuchFlintGoodrichShot1941.jpg

Show 4 more facts

Commons category: Pain
ICPC 2 ID: A29
exact match: purl.obolibrary.org/obo/SYMP_0000099
NCI Thesaurus ID: C3303

Sources (6)

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~41 min read

Article

40 sections

Contents

Etymology
Classification
Chronic versus acute
Allodynia
Phantom
Breakthrough{{anchor|Breakthrough_pain}}
Asymbolia and insensitivity
Functional effects
On subsequent negative emotion
Theory
Historical
Modern
Three dimensions of pain
Evolutionary and behavioral role
Thresholds
Visual analogue scale
Multidimensional pain inventory
Assessment in non-verbal people
Other reporting barriers
Diagnostic aid
Physiological measurement
Mechanisms
Nociceptive
Neuropathic
Nociplastic
Psychogenic
Management
Medication
Psychological
Alternative medicine
Epidemiology
Society and culture
Non-humans
Animals
Plants
See also
Explanatory notes
References
Further reading
External links

Pain motivates animals to withdraw from damaging situations, to protect a damaged body part while it heals, and to avoid similar experiences in the future. Most pain resolves once the noxious stimulus is removed and the body has healed, but it may persist despite removal of the stimulus and apparent healing of the body. Sometimes pain arises in the absence of any detectable stimulus, damage or disease.