Mechanism of Pain

Pain management is the medical specialty born out of the need for treating all types of pain, including musculoskeletal, spinal and neuropathic pain disorders. With an accurate diagnosis and early intervention, we hope to help patients avoid spiraling into a state of chronic pain, or at least reduce the severity of pain.

The mechanism of a painful experience can begin with a noxious stimuli (chemical, mechanical, thermal) causing tissue injury to the skin, muscles or the viscera (internal organs), called nociceptive pain. Electrical impulses are generated and transmitted from the site of injury to specific centres in the brain. This sequence of events, called nociception involves four processes, transduction, transmission, modulation and perception.

When the noxious stimuli results in tissue injury, endogenous (within the body) chemical mediators are released or synthesised and will directly stimulate inflammatory mechanisms which enhance transduction. A chemical soup of the body’s chemicals such as histamine, cytokines, substance.