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Neuropathic pain
Make it clearer
Neuropathic pain is pain that often arises from damage to the nerve itself. When a nerve fiber is injured, it starts firing on its own, with nothing stimulating it, or it changes the way it conducts the signal. The damaged wire no longer waits for the blow: it sends the signal on its own. It is a persistent pain.
To understand it, it helps to separate two words. Nociception is the mechanical part: nociceptors, which are nerve fibers, detect a noxious stimulus and transmit it to the brain. Pain is something else: it is what the higher brain centers build from those signals, the unpleasant experience the person feels.
When that system is altered, two phenomena occur, each with a name of its own. A stimulus that would not normally hurt starts to hurt, and that is called allodynia. And a stimulus that really is noxious produces an exaggerated response, and that is called hyperalgesia.
In brief
Neuropathic pain is persistent pain that often comes from damage to nerve fibers, which increase their spontaneous firing or change how they conduct.
The damaged wire no longer waits for the blow: it sends the signal on its own.
Nociception is the detection of a noxious stimulus by nociceptors and its transmission to the brain; pain is what higher brain centers build from those signals.
When the system is altered, a harmless stimulus can hurt, which is allodynia, and a noxious stimulus produces an exaggerated response, hyperalgesia.
Sources (1)
- National Center for Biotechnology Information, StatPearls PublishingPhysiology, Pain, StatPearlsPublished
This page explains the topic in general terms; it does not tell anyone what treatment to follow.
Updated