Unit 1 Flashcards
(42 cards)
what are the 2 aspects of pain
- pain perception
2. pain reaction
what is pain perception
- physical process by which pain is received from stimuli and transmitted by the nervous system (CNS and PNS)
what is pain reaction
- a person’s expression of or reaction to the perceived pain
- varies from person to person
what does a high pain threshold lead to vs a low pain threshold in reference to pain reaction
- high pain threshold: low pain reaction
- low pain threshold: high pain reaction
what 3 factors can a person’s reaction to pain
- cognitive factors
- emotional factors
- symbolic factors
what are cognitive factors for pain
- factors that influence how a person thinks about pain
- what you say affects how patients thinks/reacts to pain
- always inform patient of what is happening
- important to make the patient feel like they are in control
what are emotional factors for pain
- emotional factors, such as anxiety, influences patient’s tolerance to pain
- increased anxiety decreases pain tolerance
what are symbolic factors for pain
- unique to each person. pain may symbolize an attack, damage or threat
what are some other factors that may affect pain reactions
- male: higher pain threshold
- tired: low pain threshold
- Latin American, European: low pain threshold
what do neurons do in the physiological generation of pain
- nerve cell which conducts impulses from the skin, mucous membranes and other sense organs to the brain and spinal cord
what are the 2 types of nerves
- afferent nerves
- efferent nerves
what are afferent nerves
- sensory
- conduct signals from the sensory neurons to the spinal cord or brain (ie receiving a burn)
what are efferent nerves
- motor
- conduct signals away from the brain or spinal cord (ie moving hand away from the object causing the burn)
what are the functional regions of a sensory neuron
- dendrites (input)
- cell body
- axon
what 2 things does a sensory neutron need to be able to do to get a message to the CNS
- sense a message
- move the message
what is excitability
- sensing the message
- nervous tissue has property of excitability
- responds to a change in the environment or stimuli (injury, chemical, electrical or temperature)
what is conductivity
- moving the message
- when stimulated, nerve tissue has the property of conductivity, which is the ability to transmit nerve impulses to the CNS
- messages from the brain are then conveyed back to the various effectors to make adjustments
what is the mechanism of the nerve impulse
- a stimulus excites the nerve, leading to the following sequence of events
1. polarization/resting potential
2. depolarization and firing potential
3. repolarization
4. return to resting state
what is polarization
- means that the electrical charge on the outside of the membrane is positive, while the electrical charge on the inside of the membrane is negative
- nerve membrane is polarized and negatively charged at -70mV
how is the charge maintained
- gates of Na+ ion channels are closed, keeping the Na+ outside the cell
- gates of K+ ion channels are open, but K+ remains mostly inside the cell due to the negative charge
- Na+ ion channels are kept closed by Ca+ ions bonded onto receptor sits on the cell membrane
- Na+ ions are in complexes that are too large to fit through K+ channels
- remember, there are many different electrolytes (ions) in both the cell and extracellular environment
what is depolarization
- outer surface of the membrane becomes electronegative
- inner surface becomes electropositive
- occurs when stimuli temporarily alter the permeability of the membrane, opening the Na+ channel gates
- calcium gates move to allow movement of ions
- sodium ions rush inside the axon
- potassium ions leave the cell
what happens when a stimulus challenges the resting potential
- depolarization is slow at first until it goes from -70mV to -55 mV, but then it picks up to rapid depolarization
what is another name for rapid depolarization
- threshold potential or firing potential
what will be the electrical charge when the neuron is at threshold potential
- +40mV inside