Pain. I. what is It?
Mettler, F.A.
Journal of the Medical Society of New Jersey 61: 10-12
1964
ISSN/ISBN: 0025-7524 PMID: 14105277 Document Number: 9540
It is not justifiable to neglect the patient's own estimate of his pain; yet what one patient considers painful is not necessarily the same as would be so considered by another. Such differences may depend upon idiosyncrasies in personality (which will be discussed in a subsequent article) but distinct differences are possible even at the peripheral perceptual level. These involve the pattern of stimulation on the one hand, and the nature of the fibers stimulated on the other. The well-known empirical differences between the pains e.xperienccd in diabetie, other nutritional, toxic, post-herpetic states, and crushing injuries, probably have a very real basis in the selective action which these particular pathologic conditions display not only for fibers of different calibre but also for particular parts of the neuron. Thus, crushing injuries tend to damage the delta-epsilon component before the C-fibers. Attention to the type of pain may provide a clue as to its cause.
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