Last updated: Thu, Aug 15, 2024
With "pain" conditionally redefined to include all phenomena created by the pain system (Chronic Pain Redefined), the scope of pain is enlarged to include effects that are often considered secondary or co-morbid in pain research and treatment. (See Co-morbidities for a discussion of the concept of co-morbidity.) These effects are by no means insignificant to the sufferer's quality of life, and tend to be much less pronounced under the effects of Type A pain and much more pronounced under Type C and especially Type H pain.
First and importantly, pain is less a "sensation" and more an emotion or motivation under the chronic influence of nociception and "humoral" effects of pro-inflammatory chemical messengers in the spine and brain. This viewpoint is explained in more detail in A Rational Model of Emotion and Pain.
Under pressure of chronic pain, observable morphological changes are known to occur in the CNS. These changes certainly have effects on mind function. Although these effects are not clearly known at this time, it is known that these changes develop gradually. If the painful condition is relieved, these changes largely disappear. This healing takes time, meaning that the effects of the changes will also take time to develop.
I would wager that just about every physiology textbook states that pain causes increased arousal of the sympathetic nervous system. This increased sympathetic tone, otherwise called "stress," has negative effects on the major systems of the body and promotes anxiety, discomfort, and changes in the individual's emotional tone. There is a large prevalence of post-traumatic stress (PTSD) among chronic pain sufferers, which can be seen as an extreme instance of increased sympathetic tone.
Chronic pain causes changes in the attention function of sufferers. That is, people in chronic pain focus attention in different ways than do cognitive normals. Attention is such a foundational process for cognition that the changes in attention lead to other cognitive changes. Since chronic pain is long pain, these changes should tend to accumulate with the persistence of the painful condition.
The presence of pain causes changes in reward, motivation, and learning. This is implied by the nature of pain as an emotion, motivation, or moving force. Based on modern neuroscience, this seems to be a direct result of the effects of pain on the sufferer's state of mind through the actions of the limbic system.
All of which leads to emotional distress.
In fact, sufferers of chronic pain are highly likely to qualify for diagnosis as disturbed personalities under DSM criteria. (Psychiatric Co-morbidities of Pain.)
On top of all these internal effects, serious chronic pain very often leads to socioeconomic changes. (The Challenge of Living in Pain.)
Within this section...
The Sensation and the Emotion (This page is incomplete.)
Changes in Nervous System Morphology (This page is incomplete.)
Chronic Stress (Last updated: Thu, Aug 15, 2024)
Pain and Illness (This page is incomplete.)
Changes in Attention and Other Cognition (This page is incomplete.)
Changes in Reward, Motivation, and Learning (Last updated: Thu, Aug 15, 2024)
Emotional Changes (Last updated: Thu, Jun 29, 2017)
Psychological Changes (Last updated: Thu, Aug 15, 2024)
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Questions Raised by the IASP Pain Definition (Last updated: Thu, Feb 27, 2025)