Pain Flashcards
What is Congenital Analgesia
The agony of feeling no pain
Why is pain a necessary evil
It acts as a protective mechanism
The heel stick
-preformed in the first 24 hours
-used to screen for health conditions
-painful experience for newborns
Racial disparities in preterm births
Black and indigenous babies are at a higher risk of preterm births and have a higher infant mortality rate
Drugs introduced between 1960 and 2009
- 59 analgesic drugs introduced
Hypesthesia
Diminished capacity for physical sensation of pain
McGraw study on hypesthesia (1941)
-Identified the first 10 days of life as a period of hypesthesia
-Used 2000 pin prick observations
-Believed that newborns can’t interpret painful experiences due to lack of memory
Neural activity between adult and infant pain
-fMRI reveals neural overlap
-suggests that the infant pain experience closely resembles that seen in adults
History of analgesic use in neonates
-Neonates do feel pain
-insufficient scientific understanding of the brain meant that neonates were not offered pain relief, even for major surgeries
Characteristics of pain
Pain is unpleasant at both sensory and emotional levels, potentially but not necessarily associated with tissue damage, and subjectivity
How does pain differ between individuals
-pain is subjective
-with same stimulus some individuals will experience higher levels of pain than others
-uses visual analog scale (VAS) to measure pain
Sex differences in pain sensitivity
females are more sensitive to pain
Def: measurement error
the degree to which the obtained pain measure fails to reflect the actual pain experience
How can emotional association to pain affect verbal ratings and what are the implications of this
-can cause inflated verbal ratings
-may lead to catastrophizing for better care
-caregivers must trust patient is accurately conveying their pain
-those who cannot express pain verbally may suffer
Facial expressions which reveal pain
-Nose broadened and bulging
-mouth open and squarish
-checks raised
-eyes squeezed shut
-forehead brow bulge
-brows low and drawn together
